Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - Der Liebhaber

Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Der Liebhaber by Kan Takahama

12 reviews

james1star's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I admit I did build this book in my mind and expectations as one I was going to love. It’s about a doomed love with the longing that comes with it in the form of French auto-fiction but ummm… what was this?!? Hugely disappointing and honestly a very unpleasant read.

The book follows our narrator (basically a younger Duras) as she begins a love affair with an older Chinese man during her time in French Indochina (Vietnam) and how this develops. This is one part of the story where the relationship with her mother and strangely abusive (why?) older brother takes up more of the ‘The Lover’ then the actual lover parts (okay…) and we essentially learn who she is and her place in the family dynamic. There’s sort of more to the story but I don’t care for it.

The book is messy, there’s inconsistent time jumps and quite a lot of what’s being said just doesn’t make much sense - I felt like I had to go over passages time again to pinpoint what’s going on. The Chinese man is sometimes called by the mc and others as ‘a’ or ‘the’ Chinese which yes I get the time but if he’s someone you once loved or at least cared for wouldn’t you make the tiny effort to address him properly? No? Okay then. He’s also written/portrayed as weak and slightly cowardly in the way he won’t stand up to his father which is yeah great Asian representation in your book! This is bad but what I thought was just nope ewww dis-gus-tang was how later in the book Duras becomes this ‘child’ character and as I quote ‘He takes her as he would his own child. He’s take his own child the same way.’ (p. 107 of the harper perennial ed) which is just vile, like I cannot comprehend how or why her mind went there?!? It’s depraved and to want this to happen just nopeeeee.

The saving grace and why this book isn’t a 1 star is the writing is nice, I mean it’s French so this is somewhat the standard now. It’s lyrical and flows but the actual content is confusing and very frustrating at times. I do also appreciate the way it portrays the French-Viennese relations and also the way women were viewed and expected to do things.

On the whole, very underwhelming and it’s put me off reading more by her for a long time. Would most definitely not recommend this book.

Content Warnings

annieogg's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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bluelilyblue's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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ignorcross's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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sleepylit's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Overall, I enjoyed the story being told, but the way it was written became a bit confusing to me. There were also points that I felt were not needed in relation to the bigger picture of the relationship between the girl and the man. The details about her mother and brothers were not important to understand the relationship, but I do concur it was needed to be able to assess the economic differences.

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stryfe's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I've never written, though I thought I wrote, never loved, though I thought I loved, never done anything but wait outside the closed door.

this is a tough read. it's autobiographical and the perspective of the protagonist has so many different layers to it—her position as a white colonizer of Vietnam and how that is acknowledged by her, her position as an abused child seeking solace for her mentally ill mother, the "relationship" with her "lover" who is a man of twice her age, making him also her rapist—that help to paint a vivid picture of moments in her life through her memory of them.

the narrative style accepts the fallibility of human memory and uses it as a tool, allowing the narrator to jump back and forth through the timeline of her own life when she recollects something she hadn't before. duras's view of the world at age 15 bleeds into her world at the time of writing and vice versa, almost creating a tapestry out of all the crossovers.

someone with more education on the subject has most definitely written a better analysis of the very serious themes of race in this novel, so i'm going to read those rather than try to describe them, but definitely mind the content warnings. this is a story about white french colonizers. the protagonist is one of them, she is 15 years old. she has an extended "relationship" with a 27 year-old man, he is a predator, and the story includes her family's and the general colonies's anti-Chinese prejudice impacting their interactions and the protagonist's way of thinking. this book is often called an erotic novel which strikes me as extremely strange; the novel discusses sex, yes, but sex between a child and an adult should never have been referred to as erotic, i know why it was before, but it definitely should not be in 2023.

Content Warnings