Friday, September 13, 2019

“Swann’s Way” by Marcel Proust (translation by Lydia Davis)


I’m not a huge classics reader, this is actually the first time that I’ve read Proust. I wasn’t super impressed. There are passages that are gorgeous, but it is also so long and drawn out and that just doesn’t hold my attention.

It is semi-autobiographical, which makes me think that Proust is just a mama’s boy. He constantly talks about his mother and how he wants her affection and attention and of all the things that bored me in this book that has got to be number one. Primarily because nothing else really happens, he mostly just talks about society and who’s hot and who’s not and I don’t care for that either.

The one redeeming section is the middle story titled “Swann in Love” that describes Swann’s relationship with Odette years earlier. This one actually held my attention, primarily because there’s a plot and a story at place here. There’s also a number of characters which are much more entertaining and fleshed out. This is where the flowery, embellished language really shines as he describes how their relationship comes together and eventually falls apart. It’s a wonderful discussion also of how real people cannot live up to the romantic fantasies that we have.

Having said that, there are also like 50 pages on how Swann is a jealous lover and suspects her of sleeping with everyone. But it is implied that she has had sexual relationships with women! So there’s that representation, although to be honest I’m not sure if I love it since it’s also discussing how she sleeps around… I’m still mulling it over, but then again it didn’t super hold my attention so I’m not qualified to make a judgement on that.

So yeah, boring book, had some insightful points though. Give it a read but just don’t get bogged down in it.

No comments:

Post a Comment