The Lover in Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Apr 08, 2008 Rebecca rated it it was amazing

Shelves: faves

Steeped in longing recollection of an adolescent affair. Outcasts in Indochina. Demonstrates how we mythologise our lives. And that the nature of memory is to haunt. Saturated with sensuality.

The beginning...
One day, I was already old, in the entrance of a public place, a man came up to me. He introduced himself and said: "I've known you for years. Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think you're more beautiful now than then. Rather than your face as a ...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Stacie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own, 1001books

To me, this book was less about the relationship between an older man and a young girl and more about a young girl trying to find who she is in relation to everyone around her that happens to be having an affair with an older man. While the Chinese man is called "The Lover" throughout the story, I really see the girl as The Lover that really doesn't know what love is and is seeking it where she can.

The word "love" is thrown around quite a bit, but never clearly said to anyone in the story, excep ...more

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Jul 28, 2008 Inder rated it it was ok

Shelves: 1001-books, 20th-century, colonial-postcolonial, southeast-asia, fiction, read-2009, other-reading-2009

I am bit torn about this one. This is a well-written, lyrical little novella, and quite lovely in many respects. But it's about a 15-year-old, emotionally stunted, French girl who has grown up in Indochina, absolutely hates her mother, and basically prostitutes herself to a Chinese businessman who has no personality. And other than that, it has no plot. It's beautifully written, but it's also really bleak, and frankly, a little boring. The subject matter was emotional and psychological death, an ...more

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