The Year of Reading Proust discussion
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Marcel Proust
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Group Members' Reviews
It's been up for a while, but now that the group read is nearing its finish, here's my review for Within a Budding Grove.
as soon as i get back from the new Marcha-in defense of the Laws our presidenta Kirchner is trying yo change so as to dominate every one of the three powers that make our Republic a Republic and not a venezuelan tyranny-
i am going to read all these reviews
With all the usual disclaimers, here's my very personal reader response review of A L'Ombre des Jeunes Filles en Fleurs:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
My take on reading the novel. Posting it now before the light of day leads to the delete button.http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
s.penkevich wrote: "Great idea, now I can feel less shameless for my self-promotion hahaHere's my Swann's Way review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."
Thank you Penkevich your review is very helpful and you write beautifully.
Emma wrote: ""http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."You are funny! One can see you are a tea addict you are very alert.The Satie piece is so beautiful I wish I knew how to paint,it´s like a soft gorgeous water-colour.
Because my copy of À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs is in two volumes, I've done two separate reviews:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Aubrey wrote: "Mine is over here."Thank you Aubrey I so share your feelings in that last paragraph!
My review of "In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower" is here:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Jason wrote: "Hi.http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."
Thank you Jason for your review.I also liked the story of Swann and Odette. I felt it was so intense and tragic.Then I saw the film on YOUTUBE and was totally convinced Proust very sublty gets the reader into a subjacent plot without making the slightest effort.
Richard wrote: "Here's mine, for Swann's Way. I feel as if after having read this book twice I ought to have more to say, but mostly I feel a little dazed by the experience."Richard, you wrote that Proust writes as if he can divide perception,I agree I think he is the first writer that wrote about what he perceived as involuntary memory and suddenly he opened the "doors of perception" for all that came later on.
Madame X wrote: "My review of Swann's Way. I got about halfway through and realized that I had a hopeless task ahead of me, if I planned to hit all the highlights, or even most of them. There's too much that abso..."
Thank you Mme X for sharing your view of Swann´s way;I agree,the characters of Swann and Odette are deplorable but I have a tendency to like mean characters.Take this for instance,I love to watch old Bette Davies movies where she is totally horrid.I think that type of character is so more rich than the *good* guys,
Kyle wrote: "Well... I manged one for Swann's Way, kind of...I think. Maybe. *closes eyes and turns head away* http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... When you say"Proust may use many words,but he wastes none",I realized that was the reason I had found Proust so interesting and never realized that he really had these long sentences until way into the book.
Fionnuala wrote: "A little late but in good time for Easter, my review of Du côté de chez Swann:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."
i likeed your simile when you compare the novel with a train where passengers come and go and i´ll add and wagons change deocration.Thank you.
Margaret wrote: "I'm finally being brave and posting this to the group. Here's the link to my review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."
Great Margaret! you did pick the book up! and when you name of Cambridge Ma. and Harvard bookstore and -maybe you also said Camden,or I´m imagining it?- well from out here in Argentina those words sound like the names of places the Narrator was fascinated by.
Patricia wrote: "When you say"Proust may use many words,but he wastes none",I realized that was the reason I had found Proust so interesting and never realized that he really had these long sentences until way into the book. "It's funny, because I thought "whoa! Crazy long sentences!" when I first started reading it; after about 100 pages I only noticed the short ones everyone else was using all the time! :)
Patricia wrote: "Richard wrote: "Richard, you wrote that Proust writes as if he can divide perception,I agree I think he is the first writer that wrote about what he perceived as involuntary memory and suddenly he opened the "doors of perception" for all that came later on. "It's hard to imagine today writing about the workings of the mind without using the vocabulary of the unconscious that was still in its infancy as of the time Proust was writing.
Fionnuala wrote: "My review of À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, part I.http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."
the second part is gorgeous!thanks for the part I review. i don´t share the same feelings.I think he´s a cute young boy trying love and sex and i sort of like him.
Richard wrote: "Patricia wrote: "Richard wrote: "Richard, you wrote that Proust writes as if he can divide perception,I agree I think he is the first writer that wrote about what he perceived as involuntary memory..."and i bet he had heard nothing of it or Freud or Jung-i love him- or anyone
Ian wrote: "My review of "In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower" is here:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."
wow Ian!i am breathless! that was an awesome master-class on LOVE . I´LL PRINT IT.YOU COULD WRITE A WHOLE BOOK JUST ON WHAT YOU´VE WRITTEN FOR A REVIEW.Are you a professor or something?
"the object of our affection is what we make of them" that´s too much and so REAL.
Kalliope wrote: "Here is the link to:Kalliope's Review of À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs"
Kalliope, tomorrow i´ll read your review that guy´s was too much! and yours deserves all my attention.
I started my day by waking to the sound of chainsaws and had to put my jeans and sweat-shirt on top of my pyjamas and run chasing the mayor´s men pretending to cut my palm trees long branches.Well they didn´t and planted a small "fresno" in front of my recycled factory-cum store-cum warehouse- cum loft.And all my neighbours,about 3 of them who had come out to see what the screaming was all about,witnessed that i was a heck of a good neighbor. and the mayor´s men said i didn´t care if the neighborhood flooded and i said of course i did as i got 30cm. of water the last flood in the warehouse and so on and so fo.....
Patricia wrote: "wow Ian!i am breathless! that was an awesome master-class on LOVE . I´LL PRINT IT.YOU COULD WRITE A WHOLE BOOK JUST ON WHAT YOU´VE WRITTEN FOR A REVIEW.Are you a professor or something?"Thank you so much, Partricia, but really I just assembled what Proust had written. It's his master class. (I am no academic, I have nothing to profess but my love haha ;)) I just can't believe what else he might have in store for us in the remaining volumes.
BTW, I haven't read the Alain Botton book "How Proust Can Change Your Life". I was terrified that he might have done the same thing.
Could I put in a little plug for this book:
It owes a lot to Proust.
My review of the Girls in BloomI am glad this poor guy is out of his bedroom,his asthma,all those accarus/accarii (?)in between all those covers and heavy curtains and tapestries and rugs -without a miserable vacuum cleaner- and those maids that were good at cooking and eating-because they liked eating- and glorifying in their masters glory but i bet useless at cleaning i wouldn´t for my life dare look under his bed the pieces of dust and pieces of madeleines here and there and him calling *granny,mommie,come,come i´m drowning ,no air no air,help help,i can´t go to sleep*oh the sissy and spying and stalking his neighbors and his neighbor´s wife Mrs. Swann and the SPOILER ALERT WATCH OUT ,his other neighbor Mrs.Guermantes and I bet doing disgusting things under the covers thinking about these ladies and well you catch the idea
Then suddenly it´s summer and off to the seashore hotel and the beach and the sun and everybody free of so many clothes and petticoats and what does he want to do ? visit the CHURCH !!! and complains because it´s not fancy and what does he hope to find for a church in a village Notre Dame de Paris hunchback and all? and wht is he hoping for the weather to be? awful and the sea rough and the look gothic!!! and alas!enter some girls like 3 or 4 on a bike,i mean each on her bike and skirts rolling in the sea wind! wow a breath of fresh air and here the nincompoop (i am not sure what it means but it sounds fine to me and i hope to you too) takes a plounge at the first occasion jumps on her and kisses her and learns about art and painting but nothing as important as kissing a histerical brat -by the name of Albertine- who like in a wet dream receives him IN BED in those years! long ago! when everybody was a virgin almost to his/her dying day well and when you say o.k. now he is on the go, you fall flat on your face the wimpy brat thinks of his granny and goes back to see her!!!
I mean i am not expecting a spring break from the guy but man come alive you are only young once!
no doubt he got into bed to write and never came out like for seven years and wrote seven volumes!
i bet his mother was a jealous, dominant,absorbing bi lady!
and that not to mention his grandmother and his maid and all surrounded by old women and where is the man in that house? the father,the grandfather, no, his neighbor the WATCH OUT SPOILER ALERT tailor (!) called Jupin when you all know that *jupe* in french means *skirt* there you have the metaphor he is a *pollerudo*KALL PLEASE EXPLAIN* a guy who lives among skirts and not those of girls exactly but those of old women and runs to them -moms,aunts,older cousins,granmas- crying help!help! as soon as something in life happens to him
well this is my review maybe not up to your standards but it came from my heart because i can´t stand retards for heroes i can take serial killers, mad soldiers like apocalypse now,heathcliffs,byrons who incest with their sisters,steppenwolves,hunters that shoot their families but never can i stand a wimpy kid
So i hope he grows up and stops being such a gossip and a snob like lady this baroness that she did this and she did that and takes a stand
i have said period.
OMG! that was long but i got it out of my system
LOL! That was a nice, expressive, flow-of-consciousness review, Patricia! You made me giggle.
Patricia wrote: "OMG! that was long but i got it out of my system"Patricia, I think you've managed to summarize Proust's (the Girls in Bloom) like the Monty Python sketch!
Patricia wrote: "OMG! that was long but i got it out of my system"Haha, I suppose somebody had to say of Proust that "il était en retard".
Patricia wrote: "My review of the Girls in BloomI am glad this poor guy is out of his bedroom,his asthma,all those accarus/accarii (?)in between all those covers and heavy curtains and tapestries and rugs -withou..."
Patricia, as Reem said, you have summarized Within a budding grove, the Monty Python, and then some. Not 'in' but 'with' your mother's tongue!
"But as Samuel Johnson almost said, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote book reviews, except for money.” http://www.chicagotribune.com/site/ct...
ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: ""But as Samuel Johnson almost said, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote book reviews, except for money.” http://www.chicagotribune.com/site/ct..."
Great article, ReemK10
It was the first review i ever wrote in a tongue other then my mother´s.
Ian wrote: "Patricia wrote: "OMG! that was long but i got it out of my system"Haha, I suppose somebody had to say of Proust that "il était en retard"."
I can see that you understand my review perfectly well you being on the same hemisphere than i They (on the northern hem.) are upside down! Don´t let globals fool you.
Patricia, Patricia, Patricia: re your rant on "Jeunes Filles en Fleur"...Dont be so hard on the poor Narrator. He is not (and Proust himself makes this clear) Proust; it is not a biography; it is the story of a troubled young man's search. For what? You'll see.
Patricia wrote: "Margaret wrote: "I'm finally being brave and posting this to the group. Here's the link to my review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."
Great Margaret! you did pick the book up! an..."
I picked it up later, when I had a discussion group on Goodreads for support! Glad to hear there are participants from all different places.
A lot of cities on the East coast have names borrowed from British places-made for an interesting discussion of Cambridge and "other Cambridge" (for the one in Britain).
Ian wrote: "Could I put in a little plug for this book:It owes a lot to Proust."
I think that obssessions might "lead to a retreat from life" like the review said.It´s a danger but it´s worse to be a flatliner.
Elizabeth wrote: "Patricia, Patricia, Patricia: re your rant on "Jeunes Filles en Fleur"...Dont be so hard on the poor Narrator. He is not (and Proust himself makes this clear) Proust; it is not a biography; it is ..."O.K. it is not that i blame Proust i blame the Narrator but don´t worry I´ll go on to see what happens at the end.
It's late. 2:30 in the morning. Very quickly, here my thoughts on reading The Guermantes Way:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Good night.
Life knocked me off the course of the reading schedule in mid-March, and so I'm a full two volumes behind the group. In any case, here's a link to my review of
.http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
The Year of Reading Proust
Books mentioned in this topic
Time Regained (other topics)Time Regained (other topics)
The Captive / The Fugitive (other topics)
A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (other topics)
The Guermantes Way (other topics)
More...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Thank you Ian your review has been very helpful and the music wonderful."
Thanks Patricia for reminding me of Ian's haikus/verses....a favorite:
"What's Left is All Right, I Suppose
I should have realised
You'd take your whole world with you
When you left my bed."