My first reading of The Lover was interesting to say the very least. Duras's style of writing is one that I've never come across in previous works that I've read, but surprisingly I do enjoy her style of writing. Although, The Lover fluctuates from one event to another, from one emotion, thought, memory leaping forward and turning backwards in time, her flow of thought is still somewhat connected to one another. Duras begins the story with a man approaching her and "he introduced himself and said, "I've known you for years. Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think you're more beautiful now than then. Rather than your face as a young woman, I prefer your face as it is now. Ravaged." (3) The man's words really confused me, and its strange to think that someone would introduce themselves on the streets with such a personal statement on your appearance. However, his words were compelling and I realized that his introduction to Duras as an introduction to The Lover, and perhaps Duras wishes to begin with her reminiscence of her youth and beauty, but coming to a conclusion that she prefers what she has become, "ravaged".
Another theme that I found while I was reading was people's expectations of Duras in her childhood, especially from her mother. "What was enough for her is not enough for her daughter." (5) Her mother's expectations of her education basically directed and guided her childhood. However, after her father's death, her mother no longer took care of Duras and her brother and despair took over her mother's life completely, leading to the disintegration of her mother's life, what Duras associates with as the "dying of the light".
Duras, as the narrator of the story, seems to be constantly contradicting herself due to the uncertainty in her memories of the past. "The story of my life doesn't exist. Does not exist. There's never any center to it. No path, no line." (8) Her life is not sequential, one event does not logically lead to another, and so does her fluctuation of the stream of unconsciousness.
What I find most striking is how she always recalls her memory to the age of fifteen and a half, thus emphasizing the age of when every thing shifted and changed her life."So I'm fifteen and a half. It's on a ferry crossing the Mekong River. The image lasts all the way across. I'm fifteen and a half, there are no seasons in that part of the world, we have just one season, hot, monotonous, we're in the long hot girdle of the earth, with no spring, no renewal. (5) The description of Vietnam's monotonous season actually contradicts her description of life with "no path, no line". However, her assertion of "no spring, no renewal", reflects her apathetic views towards life and the pessimism of her childhood filled with the fear of death and and never gaining her mother's love.
Page sixteen ends with Duras cutting her hair, rejecting her hair as being the definition her beauty and ultimately defining herself as a whole."..I felt the cold scissors on the skin of my neck. It fell on the floor. They asked if I wanted to keep it, they'd wrap it up....I said no....Afterwords they'd just say, "She's got nice eyes. And her smile's not unattractive." (16) I feel like The Lover was written in order for Duras to explore her childhood and evaluate her progression through the years of her life. She gives a strikingly personal and honest expression of her life and why she is the person she is today.
Your post was super insightful. On my blog I also wrote about how Duras' style of writing jumped around a lot but is actually all connected. It was really perceptive of you to analyze why she began the book off with a stranger going up to her to tell her she looks ravaged. I also noticed it in the book but now I know why! I also wrote in my blog about the quote: "The story of my life doesn't exist. Does not exist. There's never any center to it. No path, no line." (8). I think this is definitely reflected in her writing style in that she's writing everything in the way she's remembering it so it's not in a chronological order or "in a line". I really like how you said Duras wrote The Lover as a means to look back on her childhood and explore it which (now that you mention it) seems very possible. A lot of the times, she talks about a moment she claims to have forgotten up until the moment she decided to write it in the book. It's almost as if the book is helping her remember her childhood.
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