

It has great art and gives a pretty good idea of what the first book in Proust‘s epic novel is about. Time and memory and lost chidhood and people known and what love is about. Not sure if I will read the whole thing. Anyone read it?
It has great art and gives a pretty good idea of what the first book in Proust‘s epic novel is about. Time and memory and lost chidhood and people known and what love is about. Not sure if I will read the whole thing. Anyone read it?
Started a graphic novel of Proust. This will help me know if I should read the whole series or not or give me a taste of it.
In the Absence of Men, by Philippe Besson (2007, transl. 2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: In 1916 Paris, a queer teenager experiences love for the first time in very different relationships with a middle-aged writer and a soldier on leave from the War.
Review: Once again, Philippe Besson has demonstrated his knack for exceptional, short, melancholic, queer fiction. Cont.
Literary memoirs are my favourite: I am halfway through Laure Murat's essay on Proust's In Search of Lost Time, which she realised when she read it aged 20, described her milieu (the French aristocracy), was partly based on members of her family, & is as relevant now as it was then. She walks us through the parallels & is pitiless about their flaws. She was rejected when she came out as lesbian & feels a kinship with Proust, who was gay.
#LGBTQ
In February and March, I‘m reading Swann‘s Way with a few bookish friends. I love hearing everyone‘s comments each week. We are reading the Lydia Davis translation and just made it to the halfway point. Proust‘s meandering thoughts are beautiful, but exhausting at times. I love having a chance to savor his words and reflect on them each week instead of rushing through it.
2024 wrap up:
41 books read
24 fiction
17 non-fiction
Favorites: More Work for Mother, Mother Tongue, Poverty by America, The Best of Everything
Finally managed to find a pretty enough edition of In Search of Lost Time. Definitely going to be one of my 2025 reading projects 🥰
#Litsolace #Midsummersolace
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