Smugness

Page: 618
Pages read since last post: 338
Days elapsed reading Proust: 30 (23, 7)
Books read since last Post: 4 (A. Oz, My Michael; R. Harris, Pompei; R. Kapuscinski, The Emperor; A. Steinsaltz, The Essential Talmud)

I finished on Friday (I've been in Wales since and no Internet there). I am now very smug. I'm even more smug given I have also managed to polish off several other books this weekend. I haven't done a great deal else to be fair. While Budding Grove didn't quite sustain the high notes of the first section, it is still magical. The section on Balbec (actually sections, as it doesn't have the same unity as the Paris section) is still enchanting, though more variable. The emergence of ancillary characters is a joy to behold. I'm not sure how much we see of Bloch, Saint Loup and the various girls around Albertine in future, but it was a pleasure to see them this time. Albertine herself is a little annoying, as is (increasingly) the narrator. And, while this bodes badly for the rest of the books, it doesn't spoil this one.

In other news, The Emperor is astounding (if odd) and I have been seduced by My Michael, though I'm still not quite convinced. Robert Harris does what he always does well, but it's a bit cartoonish, while Steinsaltz on the Talmud overcomplicates the task before him.

I'm in India in a fortnight, and not back till the 3rd Dec. I suggest we extend our start date for volume 3 to the 4th Dec. I am happy to postpone it to the New Year.