Marguerite Duras: A Life

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Laure Adler contacted Marguerite Duras in the 1970s, after finding consolation from one of her novels after the death of her child, and they became friends. Years later, she became Duras' official biographer, and they embarked on two years of tape-recorded conversations. The result is this extraordinary, candid, beautifully written book. Duras' life was intimately involved with the most important and turbulent events of French 20th century history: the Indochinese colonies, the Second World War, the rise and decline of the communist party, Algerian independence and May 1968. Adler progresses skilfully through these events and through Duras' life and many loves. Duras liked to reinvent her past or gloss over, or even conceal, events and actions that didn't fit in with her image of herself. Adler sorts out Duras' facts from her fictions - not flinching from her alcoholism and narcissism. She reveals Duras' work for the Vichy authorities at the start of the war (Duras went on to work for the resistance, hiding a fugitive Francois Mitterand in her apartment). But, she also conveys Duras' courage and genius, and her prolific talent as writer and filmmaker.