The Easy Life
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
'One of the 20th century's greatest thinkers and prose stylists' New York Times
'A novel of the disquieting contours of family, and of the mind, and of life unceasing even in the midst of death by one of the most important, visionary writers of all time' Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy
WITH A FOREWORD BY KATE ZAMBRENO
There's nothing to do about boredom, I'm bored, but one day I won't be bored anymore. Soon I'll know that it's not even worth the trouble. We'll have the easy life.
Twenty-five-year-old Francine Veyrenattes, confined to the family farm, already feels that life is passing her by. But after Francine lets slip a terrible secret, culminating in the violent deaths of her brother and uncle, her world is shattered.
Fleeing the farm for the seaside, Francine finds herself disintegrating. Lying in the sun with her toes in the sand, she restlessly wishes for things to be somehow easier, to have a life worth living.
But then the calm and quiet is broken yet again – by another tragedy and a senseless death, in which Francine finds herself implicated. Cast out of paradise, and stranded between her home and the rest of the world, she must confront her rapidly dissolving sense of self if she is to find a way to survive.
'It's a masterpiece, and a little known, if not unknown, masterpiece … Any serious reader of this author's work must begin with this novel' YVES BERGER
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The intense second novel by Prix Goncourt winner Duras (The Lover), first published in 1944 and translated into English for the first time, involves a young woman dealing with a series of tragedies. Francine Veyrenattes, 25, lives a staid life on her family farm, where she's close with her brother, Nicolas. After Francine learns their uncle Jêrome is having an affair with Nicolas's wife, she tells Nicolas and goads him into attacking Jêrome, which he does. Jêrome's subsequent death prompts more devastating consequences and Francine flee to a seaside town where she spends her grief-stricken days in an emotional haze, and nights alone in her hotel room, ruminating on her existence. She asks what it means to be a person, a woman, and a body in a world that seeks to destroy and devalue those things, as well as what it means to be a person with a story as opposed to having a simpler life without tragedy. Though some of the narration can feel a bit redundant, Duras (1914–1996) drops more than enough sharp revelations to carry the reader along. Though it's not quite at the level of her masterworks, it offers glimpses of the heights to come.
