One of my favorite books, by my favorite writer. I first read Duras when I was 15 and i think, that has made all the difference. Her writing touched me where no other writer has been able to reach till date. The story, the plot, the characters - are all irrelevant in her book. You can't pickle it under fiction or non fiction. No flowery language, no melodrama. Reading her is just an experience, very intense, often tumultuous. This book is about her love affair with the rich North Chinese guy - you could say - but i could never call it a love story or say that it had romance. Impossible to contain her in such lame labels. In fact, each time i've picked up any of her books, i've just ached to pick up the pen and paper and start writing...about what? I don't know. It's just this overwhelming feeling to be with yourself and let the whirlpool inside flow out. Sometimes i'd be able to write and sometimes i'd just return to her book, admitting to myself that she knows best how i feel. Often i've felt my discovering her was not just a random event...she's almost like a planet squaring your moon....affecting your life choices, influencing your destiny, without you being able to crack the code of the scheme of things.

You know, I don't even want to give this book 3 stars, but I'm being generous and sticking to my rule (even thought I had to break it with this author not too long ago) of never giving below a 3-star rating, except in extreme cases.

Maybe there's something wrong with me or perhaps my tastes have changed, but I used to be SUCH a hardcore fan of hers-truly, a fangirl. Especially of The Lover and this book (even though it's just The Lover with bigger font & more white space).

Today, though, it's like I'm taking a cold, hard look at her work-an "investigation" triggered by reading Blue Eyes, Black Hair (one of the worst 60 pages I've had to get through in my whole life). Now, I don't want to be a hater (because I had such a love affair with The Lover early on), I might give her another chance. But at the same time I wonder if all her work is erotica (not my choice genre to read), and more importantly, if all her work is erotica between 14 year old girls & 35 year old, grown men.

The man she was screwing in book 1 should've been with her mother since they were about the same age, instead of going with her little teeny bopper daughter. Sickening and silly. In hindsight I (the reader) was supposed to be so blown away by him because he was rich, had a nice car, nice clothes, and a decent place to live. So in exchange for all the material things the loser main character didn't have, I'm supposed to turn a blind eye to the fact that every passage I'm reading where he "ripped her clothes off", "couldn't even make it to the bed," and so on, is describing sex between a 14 year old child and an adult male.

So,I'm more upset with myself for embracing such work, paying for it. I don't want to support that kind of writing. And frankly, I wonder what the author sees in that kind of stuff. But anyway, enough. The review is over and I've talked for far too long on this. Thanks for reading.

Quando li «O Amante» pela primeira vez, senti-me desconfortável, não pela diferença de idade, mas pela idade da criança. Finalmente, com a história recontada neste «O Amante da China do Norte», consegui entender a voz de Marguerite Duras. Há muito de sórdido nesta história de uma sensualidade exacerbada, mas a frase «Não me vai acontecer mais nada na vida além deste amor por ti.» triunfou sobre aquilo que me incomodou.

Foi uma reconciliação com esta história de amor até à morte, que, no entanto, exige uma mente aberta, mesmo aos leitores com maturidade de anos, vida e experiência.

En 1984, n  Marguerite DURASn, entonces de 70 años de edad, publicó una novela breve, autobiográfica, llamada "El Amante", acerca de su relación, a los 15 años de edad, con un chino de 27 años, millonario, en Indochina, en esa época colonia francesa. La novela se convirtió en un éxito de ventas instantáneo. Luego, en mayo de 1990, la autora se enteró de la muerte del chino de la novela, su ex amante, su primera relación, su primer amor. Entonces decidió reescribir esa historia. Ampliarla, profundizarla. Entonces, en 1991, publicó "El Amante de la China del Norte". La historia de "El Amante de la China del Norte" es exactamente la misma que la de "El Amante", pero las obras son diferentes. El estilo es muy parecido, compuesto de líneas cortas y directas, repeticiones parciales, mención de elementos atmosféricos, una descripción precisa pero breve de los lugares, entre otras cosas. Cambios de tiempo, cambios de perspectiva, paso de la primera a la tercera persona, inclusión de notas a pie de página e incluso de notas dentro del texto, etcétera. Si la primera es más concentrada (es más breve), la segunda desarrolla más los hechos contados. Si la primera es más introspectiva, la segunda es más narrativa, y la relación amorosa tiene mucho espacio. La segunda obra es más dialogada, también.