THIS IS A BOOK REVIEW WE DID FOR MAY. I EDITED CHINESE AND TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH.
The Lover’s Lover
Marguerite Duras’ novel “The Lover,” the author’s most well known work in China and the subject of a film, tells the story of a torrid love affair between a French girl and a Chinese man set in Vietnam. In real life, Yann Andrea Steiner, a homosexual man 40 years Duras’ junior, accompanied the author during her final years. During the two years following her death, Steiner locked himself in his room. He refused to go out, to meet people, to speak. In this zombie–like state, Steiner silently continued his conversation with Duras in his volume, “Cet Amour-Là.”
Though Steiner can’t be considered a writer, the intensity of his love for Duras compensates for the flaws in his prose. Throughout the book, Steiner uses the polite second person “vous” form when addressing Duras, and borrows Duras’ own literary style to describe her. Time and space melt away as narration, flashbacks and memories intertwine. Duras’ aura permeates the book. Beyond being witness to the couple’s wild acts and quarrels—and even highly private moments, like Steiner giving an aged Duras a bath—we are privy to many details of Duras’ literary life. “The Lover,” it turns out, was dictated by Duras and typed out word for word by Steiner, who, we learn, is also the “grey-eyed boy” in the novel.
Some women describe Duras as “a demon in her youth, a witch in her old age.” In any event, in fully setting out his relationship with Duras, Steiner allows us to see these two lovers’ fidelity — even in the face of death.
—Jack Jiang
Book
情人的情人
杜拉斯最为中国读者熟识的，莫如是她那被拍成电影，关于一个法国小女孩在越南与一个中国男人发生不羁之恋的小说《情人》。而在现实里，陪她走完人生最后时光的情人，也是一个比她小40岁，而且是个男同性恋者的扬·安德烈亚 。在杜拉斯死后的两年，扬把自己困在房间，不出门，不见人，不说话。在这种近似于“活死人”的状态中，扬默默地一如以往与“她”交谈着，并写成这本《情人杜拉斯》。
扬算不上是一个作家，但是他对杜拉斯的激情可以弥补他在写作上的瑕疵。在书里，扬始终以第二人称“您”呼唤着杜拉斯，并且以杜拉斯惯用的文体，反过来叙述着杜拉斯本人。时空消失了，插叙、倒叙、回忆交织在一起。在这本洋溢着浓烈“杜拉斯味”的回忆录中，我们除了可以看到他们赌气、争吵，甚至扬为年迈的杜拉斯洗澡搓背时的隐私情境外，还有杜拉斯生前写作时的种种细节，包括《情人》原来是由杜拉斯口述，扬逐字逐句打出来的，和《情人》里几次出现的“灰眼睛小男孩”，就是扬本人。
曾有读者这样形容杜拉斯：年轻的时候是小魔女，年老的时候是巫婆。不管如何，扬把他和杜拉斯的一切记录了下来，让我们看到这两个至死不渝的情人。
—江熙彤
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