60. How Proust Can Change Your Life

I had a Playaway from my library that kept shutting down and repeating the audio over and over again when I went on walks. I almost took it back (or had someone else take it back since I am not able to drive with a broken leg), but I thought I would give it one more try this morning, and it played without incident. 

I read it in hopes of it helping me to want to read the massive In Search of Lost Time. It does give me context. I listened to an abridged version of the first two sections a few years ago and was not greatly impressed, but there is a new unabridged audio version that makes me want to try it. 

I ended up really liking this book. He gives one a background to Proust's life that informs how his classic In Search of Lost Time (or Remembrance of Things Past) evolved. It also helped that I have been to some of the places described now that I finally made it to France in 2019 (I did go to France January of 1983, but that does not count because I was on a train and only saw Paris from mostly underground). I loved the chapter on art and looking at ordinary things in a different way.

I also want to try because of my present situation with my broken leg and the copious amount of time I have at my disposal. 

I laughed hysterically when I read this quote by Proust’s brother, Robert, “The sad thing is that people have to be very ill or to have broken a leg in order to have the opportunity to read In Search of Lost Time.” 

The author adds, “And as they lie in bed with their limb newly encased in plaster … they face another challenge in the length of individual Proustian sentences.”

These days they do more braces than plaster, but you get the irony of reading this quote in light of my situation!