All of a sudden, in the same voice, at the same slow pace, he says, "He looked at me. He saw I was there outside the window of the lounge, and several times he looked at me."

She sits there, in the yellow light. Her eyes on him, she listens. She has no idea what he's talking about. He goes on:

"He went over to a woman. She signed to him to follow her. It was then I saw he didn't want to leave. She took his arm and made him go. A man would never have done that."

The voice has changed. The slowness has gone. it's no longer the same man speaking. He shouts at her that he can't stand her looking at him like that. she stops looking at him. he shouts at her that he doesn't want her to lie down, he wants her to stand. She's not going to leave until she's heard this story. He goes on with it.

He didn't see the woman's face; it was turned towards the young foreigner who had come over to her, and she had no idea anyone was watching them. She was wearing a light-colored dress. White, that was it.

He asks her if she's listening. She's listening, he needn't worry. He goes on:

"She called him jut because he kept looking at me like that. she must have had to shout to make him turn away from me. Suddenly we were separated. They both disappeared through the door leading to the beach."

He tries not to cry. But he does cry.

He says, "I went and looked for him on the beach -- I didn't know what I was doing. Then I went back into the grounds of the hotel and waited till it was dark. I left when they switched off the lights in the lounge. I went to that cafi by the sea. Usually our affairs are short. I've never experienced anything like this. The image is here "-- he points to his head, his heart --" all the time. I shut myself up in this house with you so as not to forget it. Now you know the truth."

She says, "What a terrible thing."

And yet another in the series of French books. The class blurb only listed authors, not novels, so when I looked up Dumas at the New York Public Library catalogue, I realized the teacher must have meant for us to read L'Amant, her most famous novel. Many years ago, I'd seen the movie version of the novel and abhorred it, so I decided to checkout another one of her novels. That's how I came upon Blue Eyes, Black Hair.

While I don't think I'll ever be a Dumas enthusiast, I did enjoy this novel and it made me think a lot. The sparse style of writing, the unusual characters and the minimalist setting are all good exposure for a writer-wannabe.