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A review by hayesstw
In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 1: Swann's Way & Within a Budding Grove, Part 1 by Marcel Proust
I saw this book in the library and thought I'd seen it on a couple of those lists of books that everyone should read, or the greatest books of the 20th century, or even the
I've been told that [b:In search of lost time|13073169|Hector and the Search for Lost Time|François Lelord|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344310021s/13073169.jpg|27262640] is written in a "stream of consciousness" style, and that might help to explain the long sentences and convoluted syntax. But I've read other "stream-of-consciousness" novels and I don't recall the main clause being divided by half a page of subordinate clauses like an if-then computer program. Yes, one thought leads to another, but the syntax follows the thought, rather than the thought being divided by the syntax -- at least that is what I recall in [b:The Waves|46114|The Waves|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439492320s/46114.jpg|6057263] and [b:Ulysses|338798|Ulysses|James Joyce|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1428891345s/338798.jpg|2368224]. And this one has more digressions than [b:Tristram Shandy|916292|Tristram Shandy|Ruth Whittaker|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1266672792s/916292.jpg|901368].
Another confusing thing is that one is never sure of the age of the narrator. One moment he is sent to bed because he's too young to sit at the dinner table with the adults, and is scheming to get his mother to come upstairs and kiss him goodnight, the next he is holding adult literary discussions with a sophisticated friend who is excluded from the dinner table because he was rude about the narrator's great aunt. Still, I suppose my stream of consciousness jumps about like that except I'm not asking anyone else to read it, and as the author says, we don't know people, we only know out memories of them. But I think the author of [b:Night train to Lisbon|1528410|Night Train to Lisbon|Pascal Mercier|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388511706s/1528410.jpg|1387510] says it better, and in fewer words.
I'm sure I'll have to take it back to the library before I've finished it, and even if I do finish it there are still three more volumes to go. Maybe I'll renew it, maybe I won't.
I've been told that [b:In search of lost time|13073169|Hector and the Search for Lost Time|François Lelord|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344310021s/13073169.jpg|27262640] is written in a "stream of consciousness" style, and that might help to explain the long sentences and convoluted syntax. But I've read other "stream-of-consciousness" novels and I don't recall the main clause being divided by half a page of subordinate clauses like an if-then computer program. Yes, one thought leads to another, but the syntax follows the thought, rather than the thought being divided by the syntax -- at least that is what I recall in [b:The Waves|46114|The Waves|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439492320s/46114.jpg|6057263] and [b:Ulysses|338798|Ulysses|James Joyce|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1428891345s/338798.jpg|2368224]. And this one has more digressions than [b:Tristram Shandy|916292|Tristram Shandy|Ruth Whittaker|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1266672792s/916292.jpg|901368].
Another confusing thing is that one is never sure of the age of the narrator. One moment he is sent to bed because he's too young to sit at the dinner table with the adults, and is scheming to get his mother to come upstairs and kiss him goodnight, the next he is holding adult literary discussions with a sophisticated friend who is excluded from the dinner table because he was rude about the narrator's great aunt. Still, I suppose my stream of consciousness jumps about like that except I'm not asking anyone else to read it, and as the author says, we don't know people, we only know out memories of them. But I think the author of [b:Night train to Lisbon|1528410|Night Train to Lisbon|Pascal Mercier|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388511706s/1528410.jpg|1387510] says it better, and in fewer words.
I'm sure I'll have to take it back to the library before I've finished it, and even if I do finish it there are still three more volumes to go. Maybe I'll renew it, maybe I won't.