Book Review of The Impudent Ones by Marguerite Duras

UPDATED: 2/5/2023

[Disclosure: This review includes affiliate links. Purchases made through the link provide a small commission to us at no cost to you.]

(click the image above to purchase this book through Amazon)

256 pages, published in English on March 9, 2021, though it was originally published in French in 1943 (I received an advanced copy of this book through the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

YOU MAY ENJOY THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE:

French literature * Literature based on family dynamics

TRAVEL INSPIRATION:

This novel takes place entirely in France, with a portion situated in a suburb of Paris (specifically Clamart), and the large majority of the book in the pastoral southwestern France. The best guess is that the novel is set in the 1930s.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Marguerite duras

Marguerite Duras is the nom de plume of Marguerite Donnadieu (and later Marguerite Antelme when she married), who lived from 1914 to 1996. The Impudent Ones was her first novel and, until now, is the only one that has not been translated into English.

Duras was born in Saigon to two teachers who were stationed there as part of the French colony in what is now Vietnam (and was then Indochina, which also included Cambodia and Laos). After Duras’ father died young and unexpectedly of malaria, the family moved to a small village in rural France and lived there form 1922 to 1924. It is believed that Duras used her experiences in this region to inform her descriptions in this novel’s rural setting. After this time, the family returned to Saigon and remained for 7 more years before Duras moved permanently to Paris, finished up her schooling and then attended university at Sorbonne, where she graduated in 1937 with a degree in common law and political economics. This is no small feat for a woman in the 1930s!

After her early career, Duras found herself impacted by the changes in society brought about by World War II. The new French government banned married women from working and so she had to leave her government position. Duras’ newfound free time probably increased her ability to focus on novel writing.

Duras has found large acclaim in France and abroad for her astute writing, often focused on complex family dynamics as evidenced by this first novel. She published about 19 novels during her lifetime and several were turned into films.

REVIEW OF the impudent ones BY Marguerite duras

The Impudent Ones deserves to be reviewed from several angles, some of which will shine favorably upon Duras' inaugural novel, some of which will not.

The novel is about the trials and tribulations of a dysfunctional family. Years prior to the novel's start, the mother has remarried upon the death of her first husband and has a son and daughter from her first marriage and a second son (of minor importance) with her second husband. The father/step-father has an interesting role to play early on but then largely disappears from the novel as the family absconds to the countryside and leaves him working in Paris.

The character of the mother is defined by her children and unraveled by them, unable to fully separate herself from the dramas of their lives. She is an enabler for the oldest son, Jacques, who uses this co-dependency to his advantage. The family tip-toes around him and lets him get his way all while constantly bailing him out financially. His sister, Maud, is the novel's central character. Because she is constantly at odds with Jacques, their rivalry shapes and forms portions of the narrative.

At the age of 20, Maud is embarking on her first acts of independence once the family is settled in the country. For reasons never really explained, Maud resides alone at her family's country home while the rest of her family settles in uncomfortably at a neighbor's home. It is with this new-found freedom and desire to place some space between her life and her family that Maud becomes enmeshed with a local, George.

Duras' writing is at its height when describing the pastoral environment with details and beautiful descriptions. She also provides insightful psychological commentary about the characters.

In spite of this, there are several major flaws with the novel, something I am not used to seeing to this extent. At times the narrative is confusing and doesn't seem to make sense, as if the writer had a concept in mind and assumed a mind-reading ability from her readership. There are other times when pronouns such as 'he' are used when multiple characters are in the scene, and the lack of clarity means that some portions of the plot are hard to follow.

I initially thought that perhaps these flaws were a function of the translation; alas, the translator describes these very flaws in his remarks at the end of the novel. Apparently Duras' first novel was initially rejected from publishers because of these issues, though reworked enough that it was eventually printed. The translator also explained that in this edition, more clarity was added where possible. It appears that even Duras understood later on in her writing career the error of her ways and sometimes left out her first novel when listing her works.

There has been a renewed interest in Duras' works, which is what is driving the translation of her first novel into English after all of these years. These challenges are explain why it was never translated before. I understand that several of the themes that Duras further developed and explored through the body of her work first show up in The Impudent Ones. So, if you have read other books by Duras and enjoy her writing, this may be a worthwhile read to understand her evolution as an author, much in the way that F. Scott Fitzgerald's final, unfinished novel The Last Tycoon , is most appropriate for lovers of his prior works. Of course in that example, the novel was his final work at the height of his craft, but the similarity arises in that his notes and scribbles enhance a reader's understanding of Fitzgerald's writing process.

For those who are the uninitiated, I would not recommended this as a starting point for reading Duras. In my case, this was the first novel of hers I read and only for understanding its flaws in context am I interested in reading her other works.