jakewelch • read

Dates read: 8/21/2025–9/23/2025 What an accomplishment. This was not an easy read. First off, let me say this novel had some of my favorite passages that I've ever read, mabve ever. Proust is a true artist the way he writes things which are ephemeral. The madeleine dipped in tea, the garden at night, the bois in autumn, the steeples in the countryside, Vinteuil's Sonata–I often found myself re-reading entire pages over and over because they were so complex, so beautiful, so nourishing, that I felt like I had to take them in again and again. I preferred part one to part two–I loved his romantic musings on Combray and the countryside of his childhood and his yearnings made me notice the beauty around me in my own life. Part two and Swann's epic love story, on the other hand, was maddening. As a rule, Proust loves a long sentence and extrapolates the hell out of everything he writes, which can feel like being swept away lost in thought, but can start to feel excruciatingly fastidious. By the end I was feeling impatient, and I think these stories could have been told in less than 600 pages while still preserving the charm of well thought out observations on everyday life and feelings. I will definitely read the other In Search of Lost Time volumes, but it might be a year or two before I pick the next one up. 4/5 stars