Edmund White writes, in his article In Love with Duras: “Before her cure, she was holed up in her château dictating one much-worked-on line a day to Andréa, who would type it up. Then they would start uncorking cheap Bordeaux and she’d drink two glasses, vomit, then continue on till she’d drunk as many as nine liters and would pass out. She could no longer walk, or scarcely. She said she drank because she knew God did not exist. Her very sympathetic doctor would visit her almost daily and offer to take her to the hospital, but only if she wanted to live. She seemed undecided for a long time but at last she opted for life since she was determined to finish a book that she’d already started and was very keen about.”
I read Duras with intensity in my twenties, though I have not returned to her since. Her life, both more heroic and tragic than I then understood, now shadows my memories of her work. Stories like The Square, Moderato Cantabile, and 10:30 on a Summer Night remain vivid to me, so much so that I hesitate to reread them, uncertain whether their lustre would endure the return.
>WOW, that's pretty intense. I've only read L'amant de la Chine du nord, but based on that I'm definitely interested in reading more Duras.
>The gap in my Duras reading is The Lover, which I ordered today.
>And I: L'Amante Anglaise, and that was in my high school French class…And didn't she do the screen play of Hiroshima Mon Amour (which I also saw years ago)? Both were extraordinarily intense, I remember. I most definitely should hunt her work out again.
>My feeling exactly, Jen, somehow Duras slipped my mind.
>Anthony, my only Duras reading is The Lover, but you certainly make me want to read more here.
>Frances – What was your impression of The Lover?
>Ooh! I do love book excerpts!& you're reading Bellow's The Victim.There must be telepathic powers somewhere between our blogs.. I bought it not long ago but still haven't given it its much deserved reading
>I can recommend The Victim, good reading, full of tension.
>It comes as no surprise to me that you would also want to quote that paragraph.I just wanted to add that I would also recommend the films that Duras wrote (as JAAC mentioned). The screenplay of "Hiroshima Mon Amour", in particular, I think is as good as any prose she ever wrote. In fact, after watching the film, I ordered a copy of the script.
>Yes, whh, I am looking forward to Hiroshima Mon Amour, added it to the top of my Lovefilm list.