Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time III

"Really for a story told in the first person by a precocious child whose greatest joy is to be tucked into bed and kissed by is mommy... this is about as good as it gets. The narrator goes on to describe myriad things that he could not have possibly been privy to, which is never explained despite the 600+ pages of room to explain such a thing. The writing is so terribly pedantic and rambling, that it is like a simile, a round and happy simile with a moustache and the unforgettable smell of an old barber shop, that has perhaps booked an airline ticket to some favourite place, only to learn that during the flight that it is hijacked by a giant and menacing metaphor and ummm... where was I? Oh yes, reviewing Proust. If you don't like me and you are pretty sure that I don't like you, please read this book... at least twice."


"Read all of Part 1. I consider this an achievement when reading the longest, most boring, whiny text in the history of mankind ... This is a terrible book that should only be read as some kind of mental BDSM play."


"Proust is sedentary. Dialog is mostly the talk at grand dinners. Action usually consists of going for a walk. These are hardly stock items for books written in the last century, which, if nothing else, features movement, dialog essential to that movement, and action based on incident.

I think the movies – or at least film – color the way novels are written in the modern world. The lengthy descriptions we find in Proust are not needed any more. I’ve never been to Paris, but I know what Paris looks like. And, as was often the case in Swan’s Way, I want the characters to do something. Move."


"I read it because I did a seminar on memory in literature at uni 7 years ago. Maybe if I read it back then, I might have been a bit more enthusiastic. As it is, I found the sentences way too long. And overall, as with 'Swann's Love' which I am currently abandoning, I think the narrator take a long time to say rather little.

I'm focused on content and...well...I understand that it is about regression or memory and remembering and so forth but, I guess I expected ..more for lack of a better word.

At least it had some homosexual content (which surprised me positively). But well...it's rather exhausting I think to read one sentence that runs over half the page."