The Ravishing of Lol Stein by Marguerite Duras

She says that in school-and she wasn't the only person to think so-there was already something lacking in Lol, something which kept her being, in Tatiana's words, 'there,' She gave the impression of being in a state of passive boredom, putting up with a person she knew she was supposed to be but whom she forgot about at the slightest occasion. They were latent in Lol Stein, but kept from emerging by the deep affection with which she had always been surrounded both at home and, later, at school. No, Tatiana Karl traces the origins of that illness back further, further even than the beginning of their friendship. Tatiana does not believe that this fabled Town Beach ball was so overwhelmingly responsible for Lol Stein's illness. Lol must have been engaged for six months, the wedding was to take place that autumn, she had just finished her final year of school and was on vacation in Town Beach, when the biggest ball of the season was held at the municipal casino.

He was the only son of well-to-do parents, whose real estate holdings in the vicinity of Town Beach were considerable. This too: Lol was nineteen when she met Michael Richardson one morning during summer vacation, at the tennis courts. With the monitors gone, alone in the vast school courtyard where, that day, between dances, they could hear the street noises: Come, Tatiana, come, let's dance, Tatiana, come on. Shall we dance, Tatiana? A radio in a nearby building was blaring a medley of old-fashioned tunes-a program of nostalgic favorites-which were all the needed. And they knew, better than the other students did, how to solicit that favor and get their teachers to grant it. They had an aversion to marching in schoolgirl file with the others, and preferred to remain back at the school. On Thursday, which was a school holiday, they used to go out and dance in the empty playground. I have never heard anything especially noteworthy about Lol Stein's childhood, even from Tatiana Karl, her best friend during the school years together. Lol has a brother nine years older than she-I have never seen him-they say he lives in Paris. Her father was a professor at the university. Lol stein was born here is South Tahla, and she spent a good part of her youth in this town.

The Ravishing of Lol Stein by Marguerite Duras