A classic Duras novel, in the tradition of "Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein": a love triangle (or square, in this case), repressed emotions, and an emotional coming of age. As always in Duras, the plot lies below the surface and requires the sustained attention of the reader. "Detruire..." is a good read, but lacks the subtlety of "L'Amant", "Le Ravissement" or "Moderato". I would still recommend it to fans of Duras and Nouveau Roman in general

Como toda la obra de Marguerite Duras, Destruir, dice alberga una frialdad que no sé cómo asumir. Todas las emociones de sus cuatro protagonistas están contenidas, a punto de explotar, pero no explotan nunca. En ese sentido es una obra 100% durasiana que deja una sensación de lejanía y quietud perturbadora.

nous l'aimerions, s'il était possible d'aimer.

Oh Marguerite. Thank you for existing, and writing.
Destroy, She Said. I wanted to read it for the title alone, but Marguerite Duras’s 1969 blissfully short book has other pleasures. In a hotel’s lobby and grounds, two male guests bond over the mystery of an aloof woman who keeps pills and a book nearby as she lazes through her stay. The author blurs their identity and the reader can’t keep track of which man is solemnly considering their life and her. The destroyer Alicia arrives – the married professor’s younger wife- and she electrically connects the four of them. As the trio suss out the mystery woman’s story of miscarriage from adultery, normative social boundaries gradually blur until even a game of cards teeters on hysteria. The quartet is broken when the woman leaves with her canned food factory owning husband, and the moment passes as our trio of monsters, Alicia and her admirers, hungers to search for her. The weight of film pulls this book into a strange territory as the separate passages feel like shots from a New Wave film with repetitive shots- sounds from tennis courts, a dark forest hedging them in. The book becomes unclassifiable due to its lightness of prose, hints of character and plot, and feel of a play. What was just four people in a boring hotel having a casual interaction becomes another Duras mystery where a danger fueled by the chaos of the erotic looms ominously.

The following translation of a long/interview conversation with Duras and other filmmakers (?) is a treat that expands understanding of the novel. Reading it is like actually sitting with a group of over serious French left artists, deeply meditating on every choice Duras made in her resulting film of the book. Yes, she really wants you to consider every choice she made. She asks them to consider she wrote from a political angle and this was about destruction of the bourgeouis order, intentionally making the men- a professor and a Jewish man- interchangeable- emblems perhaps of the Left.
While I don’t quite grasp their fuzzy logic about pure destruction as the solution to the right’s power, you have to admire Duras’s audacity as an artist- her own destruction of our expectation of novels while demanding we pay attention to these details of ciphers, dissolved down almost to their gender roles. Her stripping of superfluous details only adds more mystery and reader involvement in the text. I would possibly reread this someday as you find yourself having fun slipping around trying to find where your sympathies can land in a group of feckless adulterers.

this makes no sense
i love it?

When the Twin Towers came down, I was in Paris. I watched, as most did, events on TV. Then, in the street, a man I didn't know spoke to me. He thought I looked distressed. We went to a cafe. For several years, he called me. Always on the anniversary. Is it French? Or is it me? This book will make you ask the same things.

Perplexing. Enticing. Teasing. Here's how it starts. (The spacing is odd. GR removed the gaps in the original. Think computer gone rogue not poem when you read.)

"An overcast sky. The bay windows shut.
From where he is to
the dining room he can't see outside.
But she can. She is looking out. Her table touches
the windowsill.
The light makes her screw up her eyes. They move
to and fro. Some of the other guests are watching the
tennis matches too. But he can't see
He hasn't asked to be moved to another table,
though.
She doesn't know she is being watched."

Something sinister is afoot. What it is you decide. Duras, it seems, is just watching from the sides like someone at a tennis match.

3.5

Filmi tek sahnede çekilmiş olmalı. Tatsız, durağan, boğucu. 90'ların kasvetli Türk filmlerinden birini izliyor gibi. Zaman kaybı.

Two men and two women, all mentally ill, meet in a desolate French convalescent hotel and become their own tiny insular society. They spend much of the book engaging in conversations and semi erotic acts.

This book might be built around an emptiness which grows more and more pronounced as it proceeds.

Kinda not so easy book to read he..he..

This book is very French in that weird let interesting way. It's actually written as a play but reads well.
It's sparse in prose and has quick whitty dialogue with only five characters.
Not as good as The Lover which is Duras' masterpiece, but worth a read.

Tek kelimeyle harika bir metin. Kitap mı, roman mı, tiyatro metni mi, novella mı yoksa film senaryosu mu siz karar verin ama harika bir metin.

Kitabı okurken adeta bulunduğunuz yerden uzaklaşıp kendinizi setin içinde buluyorsunuz. Hatta başınızı kaldırsanız hep arka planda oynanan tenis maçını görecekmişsiniz gibi hissediyorsunuz.

Hikaye, ana karakterlerin her birinin psİkolojik yükler taşıdığı, izole bir otelde geçiyor. Kitapta dört ana karakter var, bunlar sinir krizi sonrası iyileşmeye çalışan hassas bir kadın olan Alissa; kocası Max Thor; toplama kamplarının dehşetlerine tanık olmuş gizemli ve düşünceli bir adam olan Stein; ve onların etrafında dönen Elisabeth Alione'dan oluşuyor.

Karakterler etkileşime geçtikçe, konuşmaları ve davranışları parçalanmışlık ve iletişim kopukluğu hissini yansıtırken, izolasyon ve iletişim çöküşü temaları öne çıkıyor. Roman, karakterlerin içsel karmaşalarını ve karşılaştıkları varoluşsal korkuları derinlemesine önümüze seriyor.

Bu kitap zaten film olarak da çekilmiş ama okurken Ingmar Bergman'ın Persona filmi aklıma geldi. Persona filmi de benzer biçimde Alma ve hastası Elisabeth Vogle bir sahil kulübesinde minimalist bir sette çok az karakterle çekilmiş bir film olduğu için bu kitabı okurken benzer bir siyah beyaz sahneleri canlandırdım zihnimde. Neyse çok fazla uzatmayayım, eğer siyah beyaz filmleri ve durağan yavaş ama derin Avrupa sinemasını seviyorsanız mutlaka okuyun.

It is a play. Therefore very short. I did not get it at all so I do not give a rating.

2,5 ⭐