Review 'The work cuts to the bone: distressing and illuminating as the texts are about the nature of war and the self, and the eroticism of grief and violence... Enough to make you change your view of history' Fay Weldon. (Fay Weldon)One of the greatest lyrical voices of our time' Aamer Hussein, Independent. (Independent)As fresh, as original and as mesmerizing as on the day they were written' Carmen Callil, Guardian. (Guardian)'By turns ardent, raging, sensual and embittered... A dreamlike, savage world, in which the great themes of love, war and death found their most recklessly impassioned chronicler' Olivia Laing, Observer. (Observer) From the Back Cover Marguerite Duras was one of the leading intellectuals and novelists of post-war France. She kept four notebooks in a cupboard in her country home in France, but until recently the importance of the material she wrote between 1943 and 1949 was not recognized. These notebooks retrace the formative experiences in Duras' life - her difficult childhood in Indochina; her harrowing wait for her husband's return from internment - and reveal the personal history behind her bestselling novels The Lover and La Douleur. These are intimate documents, chronicling each hope and disappointment with a spontaneity and authenticity that make for an unparalleled sense of closeness with the reader. As an insight into the life and work of a major European writer, this is an utterly absorbing volume. See all Product description
W**D
This Excellent Translation
The magnitude of the task for any translator is formidable, more so when a text is handwritten. Translations can make text easy or difficult for readers. In this instance, Linda Coverdale has achieved excellence. Her explanatory notes are essential fascinating reading, before progressing further into the book. Coverdale also makes clear, the notebooks represent Marguerite Duras' workshop as a writer. The Wartime Notebooks are a combination of autobiography and fiction. The four notebooks were written from 1943 to 1949. The rawness of the writing as described by Covedale, "matches the raw material of a life whose themes appear here in their first, and perhaps, most honest avatars."Each of the notebooks has a title. The Pink Marbled Notebook, the first and longest of the four in the book, begins with Duras' childhood and adolescence in Indochina. Those formative years provide insights into her future writing, most especially "The Lover" her most famous novel, written when Duras was in her seventies. The remainder in this section are rough story drafts, which flow with ease, due in no small measure to the skill of the translator.As a writer, Duras consistently drew from her own life experiences, as well as her inspiration and imagination. The compilation of the four notebooks, present a unique opportunity to read the formative draft fiction of Duras, along with her masterful autobiographical writing. Each notebook has an introduction with background notes at the end. I highly recommend this book for the content, and the quality of the translation. The book would appeal to literature students, other writers, and readers, curious to glean more from the symbiosis of Duras' life with her fiction.
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