SOURCE: "Deja Vu Again," in The Times Literary Supplement, No. 4791, January 27, 1995, p. 23.

In the following review, Manguel considers the autobiographical nature of The North China Lover and concludes that a clear, factual biography would aid the reader in interpreting Duras' works.

Marguerite Duras's novel, The North China Lover (1991), can be read in at least two ways. Read in the order in which it was written—that is to say, after The Lover—it has the quality of déjà vu, an extended annotation or correction of the original story. But read on its own, without reference to its best-selling precursor, The North China Lover unfolds as one of the most intense, controlled, quietly moving stories Duras has written.

L'Amant was published in France in 1984. It won the Prix Goncourt, was translated into a dozen languages and, a few years later, it was made into a slick, sunset-coloured film...