Henry Avila's Reviews > Swann's Way

What can you say that hasn't been said before in this colossal of literature...but I will. A remembrance of the past from the point of view of a child, Marcel Proust (unidentified) rather sickly, asthmatic with loving parents of the upper class, with their values...good and bad...
before the turn of the twentieth century France who were maybe too protective ... starting to write long, endless sentences like the distinguished master. Impressive, beautiful prose which elegantly captures his early days, sadly since you can't go back. The poignant narrative is both sublime and heart-wrenching because they're eternally gone. The ghosts of Combray (Illiers) are reborn in Proust's warm memoir, which makes simple events become haunting. These people, mostly relatives are now but vague images in his mind, fading slowly away year by year and becoming extinct like his family, the village remains but not the subjects. A love affair between Charles Swann a rich snob and the courtesan Odette de Crecy is tacked on by the writer to give it a more appealing story but annoys, worst yet is dull...Proust had trouble having this published so he paid for it himself in 1913, and we are grateful , though not naturally a page- turner, the patient will benefit from the arduous climb most others will fail to reach the top...however the view there is exquisite.