SOURCE: "If Revenge Is Duras' Aim, Then It's Also Her Muse," in Chicago Tribune, January 5, 1993, p. 3.

In the following review, Munn compares The North China Lover to The Lover and argues that despite their similar subject matter The North China Lover is a more personal and a better-written account.

In The North China Lover, Marguerite Duras rewrites a story she has told over and over, most notably in her 1984 novel The Lover. She has never told it better than here.

Replete with haunting images of forbidden passion, familial violence, hatred and love, The North China Lover strikes an emotional chord that Duras' other works have sought to destroy. Known for alternating between first-person and third-person narration, Duras deliberately distances readers from her characters. Their emotions appear on the page but are never shared. Yet by maintaining the third-person voice throughout this autobiographical confession, Duras forges a new connection...