Practicalities

Name: Practicalities
Author: Marguerite Duras
ISBN: 000215479X

by Marguerite Duras

Duras’s favourite authors were Proust, Ecclesiastes, and Marguerite Duras. I think those three are largely what she read. She also liked the screenplay of the great French film by Jean Eustache, The Mother and the Whore . She had a way of making declarations with a flair for the absolute. Here is a favourite, from Practicalities : “You never know yourself that you’re an alcoholic. In one hundred percent of cases, it’s taken as an insult.” And another: “You have to be very fond of men. Very, very fond. You have to be very fond of them to love them. Otherwise, they’re simply unbearable.” “It’s a “telling” of life, about life. A reflection.” The book is unique and fits in no genre except maybe one formed by its inclusion with Proust, Ecclesiastes, The Mother and the Whore , and the rest of the books written by Duras. It’s a “telling” of life, about life. A reflection. In one case, it is a list of items MD thinks any woman ought to have in her pantry. It veers into a page of discomfiting homophobia, my least favorite part, but that doesn’t disqualify the book for me. People are complicated. Duras, when she wrote this (or “told” it) was in a multi-year relationship with a gay man, Yann Andrea, and, according to her various biographers, angry and hurt that he did not love her in an erotic manner.

Recommended by

Rachel Kushner

"Duras’s favourite authors were Proust, Ecclesiastes, and Marguerite Duras. I think those three are largely what she read. She also liked the screenplay of the great French film by Jean Eustache, The Mother and the Whore . She had a way of making declarations with a flair for the absolute. Here is a favourite, from Practicalities : “You never know yourself that you’re an alcoholic. In one hundred percent of cases, it’s taken as an insult.” And another: “You have to be very fond of men. Very, very fond. You have to be very fond of them to love them. Otherwise, they’re simply unbearable.” “It’s a “telling” of life, about life. A reflection.” The book is unique and fits in no genre except maybe one formed by its inclusion with Proust, Ecclesiastes, The Mother and the Whore , and the rest of the books written by Duras. It’s a “telling” of life, about life. A reflection. In one case, it is a list of items MD thinks any woman ought to have in her pantry. It veers into a page of discomfiting homophobia, my least favorite part, but that doesn’t disqualify the book for me. People are complicated. Duras, when she wrote this (or “told” it) was in a multi-year relationship with a gay man, Yann Andrea, and, according to her various biographers, angry and hurt that he did not love her in an erotic manner."

Books That Influenced Her · fivebooks.com