wmbogart's review
A couple of the "reviews" published in major outlets recently are unfairly dismissive - one concludes that the Easy Life is a "minor work" in the pejorative sense, another misreads the tone as "comical" and melodramatic, and cautions that those "who read mainly to escape chaos and boredom" would do best to look elsewhere.
If you're looking solely for diversion, sure, steer clear of Marguerite Duras. But you'd be missing out! The Easy Life is a series of ruminations, as our narrator attempts to rationalize an act beyond rationalization. If you're able to read this and not relate or feel a similar weight, at least you can be thankful for your own situation. But if you go a step further and dismiss that experience entirely, or the rendering of the experience by Duras here, I don't know what to tell you.
I can't imagine the effort it took to translate this, but I'm thankful that Ramadan and Baes got it done. I hope people will pick it up even if they're just halfway curious, and that it gets the reception it deserves.
If you're looking solely for diversion, sure, steer clear of Marguerite Duras. But you'd be missing out! The Easy Life is a series of ruminations, as our narrator attempts to rationalize an act beyond rationalization.
Spoiler
These ruminations give way to a larger (and movingly articulated) psychological depersonalization, mirrored in the novel's three-part structure and in the fluctuation of perspective where both the narrator and the characters she analyzes alternate between person and image. The cold rationalization and the flattening of affect gives way to the total drowning of the narrator under a deluge of closed-off possibilities and the weight of the time elapsed thus far.I can't imagine the effort it took to translate this, but I'm thankful that Ramadan and Baes got it done. I hope people will pick it up even if they're just halfway curious, and that it gets the reception it deserves.
sophie_browne's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
alinagalvez's review against another edition
4.0
«Queda el aburrimiento. Nada puede sorprender más que el aburrimiento. Uno cree, cada vez, haber alcanzado el fondo. Pero no es verdad. En el fondo del aburrimiento, hay una fuente de aburrimiento siempre nuevo. Uno puede vivir de aburrimiento».
alia0ftheknife's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
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