☆ the lover (a smol book review) ☆

☆ the lover: a small book review ☆

----- spoilers ahead! -----

author ☆ marguerite duras

page count ☆ 117

genre ☆ french literature, historical fiction, autobiography

trigger warnings in the book ☆ sex, violence?, pedophilia?, (im not that sure what tws are)

"Set against the backdrop of French colonial Vietnam, The Lover reveals the intimacies and intricacies of a clandestine romance between a pubescent girl from a financially strapped French family and an older, wealthy Chinese-Vietnamese man."

this was a difficult read, despite the length of the book. i didn't even finish the book (despite the fact it was only 117 pages long) because of how difficult and boring it was, so this review might not be one-hundred percent accurate.

the entire book felt like a prologue for a book that never began, or a one hundred and seventeen page long anecdote, which i suppose it is, as the book is autobiographical. there are no quotation marks when characters are speaking, and names arent really given to the characters. maybe everything is weird because it was translated from it's original language (french) but im not that sure, it may just be the style of writing. 

the book had basically no storyline/plot, it was pretty much just a recollection of things that happened to the main character/author. im not even sure when all of these events take place, it only signals to the times when she was fifteen. the story is very confusing, as it jumps from scene to scene, and image to image with seemingly no connection to each of them.  overall, i didnt really enjoy the book, it was quite boring and very confusing. others might enjoy the book, but personally, i didnt like it.

my star rating: ★☆☆☆☆ (1/5)

☆ this was my first time reading something online instead of a physical copy, which maybe contributed to the bad score as it wasnt the same experience

☆ i dunno, maybe im just not ~mature~ enough for the book lol