Welcome to Litsy!

I loved it, but I had to read it like a possessed person to get through it.... Actually that‘s how it has been for me with all of Proust.

As usual with these editions, the translator's intro in the beginning is excellent.

Some of this installment is like a fever dream; a new type of Proust. Fantasies and dreams and memories flood the reader. The prose is incredible as always, the observations revelatory. I also gasped audibly at one part.

For old age removes the ability to act, but not to desire. It is only in a third phase that those who live to a great age renounce desire, after being obliged to abandon action. They no longer stand for such petty elections as that of President of the Republic, where they so often formerly strove to succeed. They are content merely to go out, to eat, and to read the newspapers. They have outlived themselves.

I‘m halfway through this!

Really liking it so far. It‘s somewhat easy to follow and, like the previous volume, not crammed with characters to keep track of.

I can‘t believe I‘ve come this far in Proust…. The prose is filled with revelations (which I‘ve grown used to but is still heavily impressive), and I‘m fully in his world. I‘m reading this like a person possessed.

A frozen woman: frozen in time and in life. A life that consists of being a mother and a wife. No longer a woman, nor a professional. I loved Ernaux‘ The Young Man but this autobiographical story of her life is rather boring in my opinion. Her childhood, teens, meeting her future husband, it‘s all very recognizable but not that interesting.
Also the nagging about motherhood annoys me for she‘s enduring it without trying to improve her situation.

#WeeklyForecast 06/23

I am almost finished with The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store for #LitsyToB24 and fortunately I am liking it a lot! Next will be another Annie Ernaux. I discovered her last year and loved the book I read by her. For #ReadingOceania24 and #FoodAndLit I‘ll read Pet, of which I have read so many good reviews.

Back from the open-air market with lots of fruit & vegs & Christmas roses. Glad for the warm coffee as it was nippy ❄
Have started a book of essays that seem to be mostly about the state of the French language & the un(der)recognised widening gap between spoken & written French. Quite apposite given the handling of language registers in my last read - the French translation of Thumbprint.

“The one way of tolerating existence is to lose oneself in literature as in a perpetual orgy.”

Remembering Gustave Flaubert on his birthday.

Picked up some gorgeous editions of Proust‘s trilogy while visiting family for the holidays 🍂 also found an encyclopedia of herbs— anyone else read the encyclopedia as a kid?

🕯️🍂This centerpiece combines rosemary & marigolds, memorializing absent friends 🪦🍁 so it‘s a fitting representation of both finds!

Generally I don‘t like short books, and then there‘s Ernaux. It‘s hard to explain, but she has a way with words that just pulls you in. In this one she explores the shame after her father tried to kill her mother. The day was 15th June 1952. A day that forever changed her and she is trying to look at that through the society she lived in at home, at school and its aftermaths.

Saw this on Instagram, and it got me thinking…. Why can‘t give Zola less than 4⭐️? I love Zola but I hated this book (It was 1⭐️ for me).