The beautiful prose of The Lover drew me into the story, and though the narrative jumped around endlessly, Duras' writing never made it feel stilted or jarring. The narrator's voice is certainly detached from the events she is telling, but the center of the book lies in her descriptions of the tumult of emotions of the characters. I felt truly sad at the end, for it being over, and for what she writes as the final words. I have a feeling I'll be re-reading this book many times over my life.