Qtprep1’s Reviews > The Lover, Wartime Notebooks, Practicalities: Introduction by Rachel Kushner > Status Update

Interesting racial privilege info about whites vs ‘half-castes’ in the boarding school in Saigon, Vietnam back in the French colonization time: a few total white girls there got away with their wants bc the school needed whites.
And info about socialite lives (Marie Claude Carpenter & Betty Fernandez) in Paris During Nazi occupation
I think she tried to show how ppl of the colonizing parties conduct themselves

Lots of feelings and thoughts. It seems she tried to tell her brain one thing (she’s only with him for the money) repeatedly only to cover up some deeper feelings she had for him: She resented her family the way they treated him. She must have some real feelings for him to resent how her family treated him. She disgusted with her brother (insulting violence) and her mom (money hungry) and complimented her man.

I wish there were more descriptions of the places, objects, outfits, etc. Of the people and the scenes in the story. I’m curious to read this novel because I wanna learn about this period historic time.

However, it’s quite striking the ‘love’ story between this interracial couple: Wealthy rich Chinese vs poor white girl in colonized Vietnam. The discrimination.

The introduction by Rachel K. did not provide much insights as I had hoped. The beginning of the lover is written with the eye of the author flashing back and forth between the past and the alcoholics-like present (some reflection, some blank space and thoughts), quite intriguing.

Very earlier of the novel, one can already sense the racism existing in Saigon colonial past: segregation of whites vs natives on a bus!