Combray

Getting into the flow of this book was difficult. I struggled with understanding the metaphors that were being used to describe the quality of his sleep. However, as this scene proceeded, I found myself empathizing. The interrupted sleep, the nightmare that was his great-uncle pulling his curls, this was all relatable on some level –though my nightmares take on a different form. Overcoming this initial hump of understanding this form of writing was difficult, but once this was done, I was well on my way to enjoying this piece. The section when he described his tumultuous relationship with sleep in the absence of his mother’s kisses was so sweet. How innocent his desire was, and how sad it was that he could only experience the affection of his mother so briefly.

Learning about Combray and his family was also quite amusing. I honestly found myself chuckling more than a few times at the scenes that were described. For example, his grandmother’s countless gifts of arm chairs, his aunt Leonie’s need to be distinct from all by never admitting that she slept, Francoise’s ‘evilness’, and so much more. One scene that was particularly funny to me was when his father was asking Legrandin about Balbec, and Legrandin’s ability to skillfully sidestep the question about whether he knew anyone from Balbec (even though he literally had a sister living there): “I know everyone and I know no one… places I know very well, people very slightly” (Proust, 1913, p. 214).

His discovery of how the human experience was characterized by experiencing the same thing, but having different conclusions based on these experiences was quite profound. For example, how during his walk in the rain he thought it was terrible, but he walked past someone who at the same time thought it was an amazing day. As such, I am curious to hear about everyone’s experience of this book, and to see how it differs from mine!

While this was a challenging book to get started with, I am happy I stuck with it, because I actually felt something while reading: empathy, humor, and relatability. It’s interesting how a piece from 1913 could invoke these feelings in a GenZ reader who spends a little too much time on reels. The vocabulary was unlike what I have ever encountered before, and I found myself constantly googling “define …”, but it was an overall enjoyable experience.

I noticed that the translation that I read is slightly different from the text that was embedded for us to read on the website. I am curious then, to see if my overall take away of how incredibly funny this book was could be attributed to the translation style (or maybe I am just easily amused). I would love to talk about Swann’s wife and the controversy surrounding her. I also got the sense that Mlle Vinteuil was queer, and would love to to discuss the presentation of this (and whether I interpreted this section correctly).

New word: ineluctable (unable to be resisted)

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