patty_s1000 's review for:

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
4.0

The beginning of the book was incredibly evocative of childhood, and I really loved it. Then it went another direction for a while and turned into something of a slog. When it switched over to telling about M. Swann's obsession with Odette, it became a more classic story and was quite readable - drew very good portraits of some of the characters, and also evoked memories of first loves/crushes/obsessions. The return to the first person narrator at the end was less gripping again.

Overall, I'm very glad I've finally read this book and it was definitely worthwhile; but I did find it tedious in parts, and I strongly suspect I will not carry on with the rest of the volumes.