The sections bear titles by turns prosaic and suggestive: “The telly and death”, “Alcohol”, “Men”, “The pleasures of the 6th arrondissement”, “Hanoi”, “The smell of chemicals”.
Practicalities might have been titled “Marguerite Duras Talks About Whatever Comes Into Her Head”. Relieved of the obligations of narrative and setting, such secondary works offer a more direct intimacy with an author’s consciousness. In a sense, it’s a pity that authors must first prove themselves with the kinds of work – novels and short stories – that we consider the imprimatur of talent, before the publication of books like Practicalities becomes feasible. The book has no beginning or end and it hasn’t got a middle either” – for my money it’s at least as valuable as the fictions that ensured her renown. Although Duras insists on the work’s limitations - “At most the book represents what I think sometimes, some days, about some things. Her musings were transcribed, Duras edited them and the result is this consistently interesting book of miniature essays, autobiographical fragments and aphoristic reflections. When she was in her early 70s, the French novelist Marguerite Duras spoke to the writer Jérôme Beaujour about a range of subjects and memories that preoccupied her.
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