To be honest, I am not a fan of this novel. I found it quite confusing and a bit difficult to follow. As discussed in the conversation video with professor Farid Laroussi, time in this novel is not linear. For such a long book to never mention the precise time is crazy to me. I think the author wants us to get lost in this book as one can get lost in his memories. The novel jumps to the past then to the present and if you’re even slightly distracted you will get confused. I will say that the writing style was quite befitting for one of the themes of this novel: memory. Memories can be confusing, they can be difficult to remember and you don’t always think of them in the order that they occurred. To me, the way this novel was written matches this notion of distorted memories.
I also did not like the weird relationship the narrator had with his mother, or rather with women in general. The constant anxiety surrounding the relationship between the narrator and his mother didn’t really make sense to me. I didn’t understand why if his mother did not give him a goodnight kiss he would overreact so much. He would get angry at his father for keeping his mother from him and I wish we would’ve gotten more of an insight about this complex relationship (Freud must be having a field day!). I feel like this bizarre relationship extends to other women in the novel such as Gilberte. The narrator says he loves her and that he thinks she’s beautiful, yet he proceeds to say the following: “I though her so beautiful that I wished I could retrace my steps and shout at her with a shrug of my shoulders: “I think you’re ugly, I think you’re grotesque, I loathe you!”” (145). Clearly, the narrator has a very odd perception of love.
Lastly, I absolutely hated the endless descriptions about the church in Combray. This book requires a lot of attention and during the pages in which there were long descriptions about the church, it was difficult for me to stay concentrated. That paired with the never-ending sentences made it even harder for me to stay interested.
Discussion question: In high school, my French literature teacher loved to use the expression “Madeleine de Proust”, which basically means an object, scent, taste… that reminds you of your childhood or brings forth a very emotional memory. So my question is: What is your “Madeleine de Proust”?
Hello Nini, I agree with your opinion too! I also find this story challenging to read. In response to your question, my “Madeleine de Proust” would probably be the scent of perfume on my mom. Because my mom is a very sentimental person, once she finds something she likes, she sticks with it (even when it comes to food!). So, for as long as I can remember, the scent of her perfume has been from that particular brand. Every time I’m in my grandma’s home, whenever my mom opens the door, even before I see her face, her perfume immediately fills the entire room. That’s how I know my mom has come to take me home.
Jialu(Lucy) Xu
Hi Nini!
I totally agree with your post. I also wasn’t very enamoured with the long sentences. It amazes me how Proust could fit so many ideas in a single sentence only separated by commas. It looked like he had written paragraph-long sentences, yet they were still grammatically correct! This stylistic approach is common in a lot of early 19th and 20th-century literature. I wonder if this was the standard for literature back then and we are only unaccustomed to it because we have been taught to think of things syntactically and in such a cemented fashion. To answer your question, something that reminds me of childhood is the scent of coconut oddly enough. Before my mother had a secure job, she spent a good portion of my younger days making a Filipino food called Suman which is just sticky rice in coconut milk wrapped in banana leaves. I remember having group up wrapping suman, commuting with her to make delivers, and making her business. She was really good at it too and made good money for what the job was. Thank you for your question! It brought back some good memories. ◡̈
Love always,
Shan
Nini, the point you make about the author wanting us to get lost in this book as one can get lost in memories is a very interesting way to think about it. A lot of your classmates also pointed out the strangeness in the relationship he has with his mother, I’m sure we’ll talk more about it in class. Your point about the church descriptions brings forth the importance of the landscapes for the author, me mentions it directly in page 86 when he’s reflecting on how he reads and interprets characters in other stories.
Thanks for your comment
I felt his relationship with women was very distinct too! Totally weirded me out at first, especially since I wasn’t completely sure of his age during the story with his mother and the goodnight kiss. When I thought about him as a small child I found it very sweet. He mentions sometimes how he is anxious and emotional, and sometimes the people around him make note of this too, I saw the experience with his mother as stemming from a want of some emotional connection that he doesn’t get throughout the day. I did not see it as sexual but rather as wanting his feelings to be acknowledged. It seems he is closer to women, he doesn’t describe an admiration or kinship to men (besides his grandfather and Swann). But yes, confusing relationships with women for sure, although I think this is in part because he only really talks about women? I didn’t read it immediately as malicious but more as confused and disturbed. I definitely didn’t read it as sexual, even though it seems that may have been his intention.
Dalia Currie
Hi Nini,
I totally agree that this was very difficult read to remain engaged with. There are many moments that are seem inappropriate and can make the reader feel uncomfortable, and the story line is also confusing. I also agree with your thoughts about the the way Marcel engages with his mother and women and general throughout the novel. His level of infatuation with the idyllic women he has created is strange. He begins to objectify them upset when they fail to fit within his parameters of what a women should be, like Swann.