Les lieux de Marguerite Duras or "The Places of Marguerite Duras" is a fascinating book about places which were important in the life and work of Marguerite Duras. Seemingly more than in other languages, French publishers publish books consisting of interviews with authors and other public personae. Thus, Les lieux de Marguerite Duras is based on two television programmes of the same title broadcast in 1976, in which Duras was interviewed by Michelle Porte while visiting places that are dear to her.

In the first part Marguerite Duras describes her farm house in Neauphle-le-Château, where she wrote many books, such as Lol Stein and Nathalie Granger. There is some overlap with Écrire as Duras refers to the story of the mouse. As in Écrire Duras described how investigated her Paris home and was surprised to find that among them there had never been anyone who wrote, in Les lieux de Marguerite Duras she relates how she meticulously combed the farm house for any writings, and found none but a year, 1875, scribbled on a wall in the attic.

Reflections on the forest, remind Duras of her brother and lead to reminiscences about her life in Vietnam and the writing of Un barrage contre le Pacifique. From there, follow descriptions of places in India, and places of importances for the writing of Ravishing of Lol Stein and India Song. Duras gaily explains that the location S. Thala is an error and that she had the name Thalassa is mind. As she discovered the mistake later, she decided to leave it unchanged (p.85).

The interview text is interspersed with fragments from films, and richly illustrated with historical photo materials and stills from films based on books by Marguerite Duras. ( )