When I first read this in 2004 or so, it seemed especially prescient and relevant. Well, now we have 2017. 
 Not just for that context, I think I appreciated this book more now. In addition to all the uncanny details of how a world can collapse into a nightmare version of itself all too easily, I appreciated the complicated rhythms of memory and time-of-telling in the narration. I appreciated the awareness of the telling as well, which approached Duras in its subtler points. I appreciated being aware of how being an ally does not mean anyone actually understands what another is going through in some of the flashback sections. And I appreciated -- and was unsettled by -- the implication that we tend to take progress for granted, when the last few hundred years could always be proven a historical anomaly. Even now, in 2017, it's hard to imagine how many rights could possibly be stripped away. Well, imagine. It's important that we do so.