The Ravishing of Lol Stein

Duras is an author whose books often take some preparation to read. If you are familiar with shifting perspective and narration, and feminist literary criticism, this will prove a fascinating and rewarding read. Lol V. Stein is traumatized in her youth, jilted by her lover. From then on, her life becomes enigmatic, even to herself. We follow the story, unsure at the beginning who is telling it. When we find out, pieces of a puzzle fall into place--but Duras never wraps anything up or gives simple answers to the complex problems of life. Few authors have created meditations on love and loss that are as profound and complex as Duras' great novels--and this is one of them.

Lol Stein was nineteen years old when her fiance, Michael Richardson, abandoned her. The moment lives starkly in Lol's memory, even after she's been married for ten years, after she's had three children, after she should have moved on with her life. The memory endures until it can be revised, until Lol can make a new memory to replace it. Tatiana Karl, Lol's best friend in childhood, was with Lol the night her fiance left her. He did it publicly, at a prominent dance in the Town Beach casino, while Lol and Tatiana watched. Lol collapses in a state of depression, becomes uncommunicative, changes. She is brought back to South Tahla, the place of her birth, to recover. It is here that she meets John Bedford, marries him and seemingly moves on with her life, literally leaving South Tahla, as well, for ten years and breaking off all contact with old friends, including Tatiana. But the memory lingers, darkly, and can only be erased when Lol and her husband return to South Tahla, return to the place where the memory was made. Lol works at erasing the mental trauma of her past with a new memory, a memory wrought from obsession, voyeurism, and calculated seduction. She resumes her relationship with Tatiana, now married, and makes a new relationship with Tatiana's lover. Haunting and erotically charged, marked by a disturbing psychological aridity, and written in a complex, non-linear style marked by the shifting viewpoint of its narrator, "The Ravishing of Lol Stein" is another example of why Marguerite Duras deserves to be ranked as one of the finest writers of Twentieth century literature.

Lol Stein was nineteen years old when her fiance, Michael Richardson, abandoned her. The moment lives starkly in Lol's memory, even after she's been married for ten years, after she's had three children, after she should have moved on with her life. The memory endures until it can be revised, until Lol can make a new memory to replace it. Tatiana Karl, Lol's best friend in childhood, was with Lol the night her fiance left her. He did it publicly, at a prominent dance in the Town Beach casino, while Lol and Tatiana watched. Lol collapses in a state of depression, becomes uncommunicative, changes. She is brought back to South Tahla, the place of her birth, to recover. It is here that she meets John Bedford, marries him and seemingly moves on with her life, literally leaving South Tahla, as well, for ten years and breaking off all contact with old friends, including Tatiana. But the memory lingers, darkly, and can only be erased when Lol and her husband return to South Tahla, return to the place where the memory was made. Lol works at erasing the mental trauma of her past with a new memory, a memory wrought from obsession, voyeurism, and calculated seduction. She resumes her relationship with Tatiana, now married, and makes a new relationship with Tatiana's lover. Haunting and erotically charged, marked by a disturbing psychological aridity, and written in a complex, non-linear style marked by the shifting viewpoint of its narrator, "The Ravishing of Lol Stein" is another example of why Marguerite Duras deserves to be ranked as one of the finest writers of Twentieth century literature.

The protagonist in Lol Stein SEES her fiancee fall in love with another girl/woman. After this VISION which of course, is no vision but real, she rambles about it not being so late just the light makes it so and becomes a shut in and an eccentric.Later in life she enjoys watching an old female friend meet with a suitor and one imagines to fix the first "GREAT" loss... then there is a melancholy end as Lol ceases to be a mere voyeur and gets caught up in life once again.Poignant, astonishing, philosophical, emotional.Duras is an amazing writer and I haven't read anything I could call "disappointing." Known so well for "The Lover" in my mind her better works are obscured by the late contemporary taste for such formulaic linear writing as Duras uses to great effect in "The Lover." Lol Stein is a wonderful antiheroine trapped in the web of emotion, the impact of events, and the spell of sensuality, vision, and time.A must read.