The three novellas collected in this volume are very different, but each is fascinating in its own way. Least successful – indeed least comprehensible – in my opinion is the last of the stories The Afternoon of M. Andesmas, although that still has its pleasures.
The highlight is the first of the stories, The Square, which could easily have been written by Beckett, so formally stark is it. It consists entirely of dialogue between a travelling salesman and a maid sitting in a square. What’s astonishing is the range of emotion and information about the characters that Duras manages to bring out despite barely a single line of narration.
The second novella – 10.30 on a Summer Night – has a more conventional recognisable structure, and deals with a wife whose husband is having an affair, but is brass-necked enough to bring his mistress with them on a road trip. There’s a very noirish feel to the story, and yet it never sinks into cliché. It has a wonderful feeling of fluidity – unlike so much writing, it’s impossible to guess what might happen next at any point.
The third story is enigmatic, to say the least. On one level nothing at all happens. Or, depending on your reading, a great deal happens in a few words.
I disliked Duras’s most famous book – The Lover – when I read it, but this is in a different class altogether. It’s challenging, modern and fascinating. You can ask for no more.
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