First off, not a fan. I found this to be a hard read. There was a lot of fluff in the first part, well in both parts, but I feel like it was worse in the first part. I read fanfiction and I have definitely read stories with a lot of fluff and filler stuff, but I it works because I already know the characters. I think using fluff is ok as long as the characters are established, but using fluff to establish the characters makes it boring.
The whole Mommy’s boy and the waiting to kiss Mommy’s cheek was kinda giving Freud. But then learning about his aunt and how he used to kiss her cheek and that she passed away makes me wonder if he needed to kiss his mom’s cheek to reassure himself that she was still here and didn’t pass away. A trauma thing perhaps? What was kinda funny was that I forgot this was originally in French and thought it was weird that he was kissing his uncle’s cheek. But them being French makes so much more sense. It still makes him being such a mommy’s boy weird, but the kissing his aunt’s cheek and his uncles less weird, because it was as if he was just greeting them. (Oh also I just remembered, I went from talking about walking up from dreaming about a girl between his legs to talking about sleep and dreams to talking about his mom. I honestly forgot that he talked about the girl and I thought he was young, like a kid, underaged. But I remembered that and the fact that he is an adult and still needs his mother to kiss him goodnight otherwise he can’t sleep?)
Just by looking at the biggest tag on the website you can tell that this one is about memory, but what I found interesting was that the biggest part of the (I don’t recall the word for it) hidden memory? Or the sensory items, such as the tea and the madeleine, that brought back the memory was such a short part of Combray. It goes on to more memories in the second part, but I thought that it would be made clearer that it was connected to that moment.
Overall, I find that it was a tough read, but something I probably would find interesting if it was contemporary? (I’m not sure if I used that correctly). But like if it was written now. The really long sentences with 8 commas and 4 different analogies/metaphors/examples ends up making my mind wander and distract me from what the original thought/text was.
My question is: what is the point of introducing characters (giving detailed background info/describing them/naming them) that are then never brought up again? (e.g. The Courtesan, Eulalie, Bloch. Actually I don’t think I can include the courtesan in this list, because she was not named. Now that I think more of it, there is more story to come, so they might come back…)