The Easy Life

By: Marguerite Duras, Emma Ramadan - translator, Olivia Baes - translator, Kate Zambreno - foreword

Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt

Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

For the first time in English, literary icon Marguerite Duras’s foundational masterpiece about a young woman’s existential breakdown in the deceptively peaceful French countryside.

The Easy Life is the story of Francine Veyrenattes, a twenty-five-year-old woman who already feels like life is passing her by. After witnessing a series of tragedies on her family farm, she alternates between intense grief and staggering boredom as she discovers a curious detachment in herself, an inability to navigate the world as others do. Hoping to be cleansed of whatever ails her, she travels to the coast to visit the sea. But there she finds herself unraveling, uncertain of what is inside her. Lying in the sun with her toes in the sand by day while psychologically dissolving in her hotel room by night, she soon reaches the peak of her inner crisis and must grapple with whether and how she can take hold of her own existence.

An extraordinary examination of a young woman’s estrangement from the world that only Marguerite Duras could have written, The Easy Life is a work of unsettling beauty and insight, and a bold, spellbinding journey into the depths of the human heart.

©2022 Marguerite Duras, Emma Ramadan, Olivia Baes, Kate Zambreno (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Wow, I loved it

I listened first to 'The Impudent Ones', and then this. I was surprised to find that both of these books were recently translated into english for the first time and I am pleased that they are available here. These are the first two books by Marguerite Duras whom I've been interested in for a long time.
'The Impudent Ones' is told from a 3rd person perspective and I'd give it 3 stars - really interesting for the insight you get into Dura's craft and the afterword was really nice, but the story itself is a little boring. It wasn't even published at the time.
Now this one, 'The Easy Life' is completely different - it's told from a 1st person perspective and it contains some incredibly lucid passages starting in part 2. The introduction reveals what was happening to Duras at the time - miscarriage, her brother died, France was under Nazi occupation. This one was her first published book, and it's obvious why.
Parts of the book read like a confession of self reckoning. It rings of 'The Stranger' by Albert Camus and because it sparks philosophical analysis. It has an extremely personal feel that the first book didn't have at all.
The narrator is amazing - Caroline Hewitt has a beautiful voice and her performance was outstanding.
This is a quality audiobook, definitely recommended.

Only if you love Duras is this audio version bearable

Translation is almost as painful as the performance. The occasional faux French accent is annoying and even sounds mocking.
If you can, read it in the original French. Not Duras’ best work, but still good. Like Edith Wharton transplanted in the Occitane 40 years later.
But do not waste your time on this English audio version. It’s cringe. Very.