bucket's review
3.0
This is a collection of reactions to some of the key passages in In Search of Lost Time. There are 28 different writers, all die-hard Proustians, who wax emotional (mostly) in response to their particular favorite passage.
I'm not sure that I really "got" Aciman's concept until I was halfway through this book - either that or the essays drastically improved as the book continued. As I read the first half, I was significantly underwhelmed. The essays seemed too short and as though they had little to say worth saying. It felt more or less like an I-love-Proust-so-much-*giggles* fest. As I continued though, this book began to speak to me more and more. The excerpts from Proust's novel became more and more lengthy (and therefore more and more dive-into-able) and the essays seemed a little more worth reading. I enjoyed Susan Minot's discussion of Proust's "obsession to penetrate the minds of others" and Shirley Hazzard's discussion about translating Proust. I also felt a real emotional pull from Jeremy Eichler's essay about the Vinteuil phrase and how it helps Marcel (the narrator) "glimpse the mysteries of another self that lie[s] hopelessly beyond the reach of language." The Proust Project is most definitely only worth reading once you've completed In Search of Lost Time. It's a celebration for the converted, not an introduction or explanation of any kind.
Themes: Proust, reading, memory, love, art, time, translation
I'm not sure that I really "got" Aciman's concept until I was halfway through this book - either that or the essays drastically improved as the book continued. As I read the first half, I was significantly underwhelmed. The essays seemed too short and as though they had little to say worth saying. It felt more or less like an I-love-Proust-so-much-*giggles* fest. As I continued though, this book began to speak to me more and more. The excerpts from Proust's novel became more and more lengthy (and therefore more and more dive-into-able) and the essays seemed a little more worth reading. I enjoyed Susan Minot's discussion of Proust's "obsession to penetrate the minds of others" and Shirley Hazzard's discussion about translating Proust. I also felt a real emotional pull from Jeremy Eichler's essay about the Vinteuil phrase and how it helps Marcel (the narrator) "glimpse the mysteries of another self that lie[s] hopelessly beyond the reach of language." The Proust Project is most definitely only worth reading once you've completed In Search of Lost Time. It's a celebration for the converted, not an introduction or explanation of any kind.
Themes: Proust, reading, memory, love, art, time, translation
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