"Emily" is Emily Dickinson, whose #258 ('There's a certain slant of light') is disclosed midway through this eerie exposition by the narrator (Duras herself) of how she writes. At a French resort in late summer Duras and her companion, both publicly reformed alcoholics, espy a taciturn English couple for whom alcoholism is an apparent life-support system. Duras is unable to keep from writing about this couple and finally meets the woman, a former closet poet whose best poem would have been Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
