10 July, 2007
Bonne Anniversaire
It's his birthday today. Old Marcel. He'd be 136 years old if he hadn't died. Perhaps today would be a good day to take stock of this task we've collectively set for ourselves. I for one have been lagging. It's been a month and no Proust. Just cookbooks and books about babies. I keep putting it off and don't know when I'll pick it up again. In the shadow of young girls in flower was the first Proust I ever considered reading. I saw a newly issued edition in a bookstore and found the cover so lovely, the title so haunting, that I bought it on a whim, realizing only later that I should probably read the first book before the second. Once so eager to embark upon a literary endeavor that I cast all logic aside in favor of aesthetic fulfillment, now I can't muster the gusto to even begin the second one after the first. But maybe today is the day. Maybe it has to be. Maybe we'll all get a second wind. And maybe we'll be the better for it -- who can say what gifts Marcel Proust will bestow upon his faithful on this, his B-day?
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1 comment:
Oh, give it a shot. In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower is where the narrator's own narrative really gets going. Soon into the beginning, the reader gets the REAL punchline to Swann in Love.
Still, you cannot appreciate this author if you need a driving narrative. These books are more like visits to some older, beloved mentor than a visit to the movies. He will tell you stories about fascinating characters like Baron Charlus, Mme. la Duchesse de Guermantes, and Robert de Saint-Loup. However, you'll spend more time listening to beautiful pastoral rhapsodies; reading brilliant critical essays on literature, art, human behavior and society; and seeing a time and place in history with more clarity than any effort of the cinema.
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