drexedit's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
3.0
avrilconuve's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Qué decir, que la amo y este libro te rompe el corazón.
thelovemissives's review
emotional
informative
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Injury/injury detail, and War
adam_channing's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
autumn_dannay's review against another edition
2.0
This book was... interesting. Unlike Irene Nemirovsky's accounts of the French Occupation, this book is fraught with anxiety. I didn't understand parts of it, I only understood the atmosphere, the grief- I want to read her book, The Lover now, but I think I will take more time to understand it fully. This book was the fear and anxiety of World War II, this book was the horror.
cais's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
5.0
“Sometimes I’m amazed I don’t die; a cold blade plunged deep into the living flesh, night and day, and you survive.”
Duras' writing has a kind of simplicity. It’s also highly stylized. Her style. Like no one else’s. Restrained. Also passionate.
The many violences of war, internal, external – they continue for some long after a war is officially over. Occupied France, liberated France – little distinction for Duras while she waited & waited to find out if her husband, arrested by the Gestapo, was alive or dead.
“War is a generality, so are the inevitabilities of war, including death.”
A Resistance fighter, there were times when she expected to be shot. Just around the corner there could be someone waiting for her. She also gave orders for bloodshed, interrogating a collaborator ruthlessly. She felt tenderly towards a member of the Militia whom she helped arrest. Duras writes of her contradictory self without explanation save to say, “It’s inevitable. Inevitable that you should feel drawn to some people and repelled by others.”
Though she says four of these stories are true & two are inventions, Duras seemed to invent the truths of her life as much as she recalled them. It doesn’t matter, really. What matters here is how she evokes the brutality of war, the fear, the many unknowns, & the inner chaos & brute strength of human feeling.
asln_mth's review
4.0
Une très belle écriture, on reconnaît la plume de marguerite Duras a trouvé les mots justes.
coralang's review
4.0
La douleur est bien présente tout au long du livre mais particulièrement dans la première partie. J’ai senti la douleur physique et psychologique du personnage comme si c’était mon propre corps. C’est comme si cela nous traversait. Bien écrit. Les autres histoires sont décrites d’une façon plus saccadée. Intéressant et bouleversant tout de même puisque nous sommes à la fin de la deuxième guerre mondiale. Mon premier livre de Duras, un très bon.