The Man Sitting in the Corridor

Book excerpt: By one of the world1s most acclaimed writers and author of The Lover One of France1s leading literary figures, Marguerite Duras casts a brooding, elegant spell over her readers with her acute portrayals of love: its aphrodisiacal powers and its sweet, inevitable pain. This novella is haunting, erotic, and tragic, with the distinctive evocation that is Duras1 own. 3Ms. Duras1 1980 novella, The Man Sitting in the Corridor, whose superb translation by Barbara Bray is only now appearing, was Š an exercise in the author1s progressive distillation of her prose. Thus unencumbered, the rare bits of writing gain resonance, like a lone voice echoing through a tunnel. Moreover, by writing less‹and thereby suggesting more‹Ms. Duras invests her information with a power unavailable to more copious, if still evocative, forms of literary expression.2 - from The New York Times Book Review