THE SAILOR FROM GIBRALTAR

by Marguerite Ducas ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 1967

This novel originally appeared in 1952, and the chronological fact serves to indicate that the more advanced, filmier--in both senses of the word--techniques used in The avishing of Lol Stein (1966) are less in evidence. Still, in that it deals with illusion, the greatest illusion of all, it is consonant with so much which appears on the modern French screen. And with the face of Jeanne Moreau on the jacket of the book giving a sweet, sad, lost definition to her heroine, one is not surprised that the appearance of the book is synchronized with the cinema version to come. The Sailor from Gibraltar is the phantom lover (a murderer) whom Anna, now a wealthy woman, follows all around the world from port to port on her shining yacht. ""The greatest love in the world--what does that mean?""--a seductive promise, or perhaps only an escape from boredom. Anyway with her is a fairly anonymous man of thirty-two, who has tossed aside the realities of his life (a dull clerkship in a Colonial Ministry; a mistress of two years) to become one of the supernumeraries in her search for her sailor, identified here, there, nowhere.....All of it is touched with a faint imprint of mystery, restlessness, obsession which is so much a part of Mile. Duras' attractive talent, and even if it all dissolves very quickly, it does have a graceful, fretful fascination.

Pub Date: June 21, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Grove

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1967

Categories: FICTION