Ah, sweet release!

Page: 0 (nominal)
Pages read since last post: 479
Days reading Proust: 136 (16, 64, 29, 16, 7, 4)
Lawns mown: 1
Welsh teams in the FA Cup Final: 1 (1st time since 1927)
Books read since last post: 2

Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
Justin Cartwright, This Secret Garden: Oxford Revisited

Well, that's just reading for you isn't it? When it's going badly you'd rather do anything but pick up a book, when it's going well you almost can't concentrate on anything else - I even find myself getting off the bus one or two stops later than I normally would just to give myself an extra ten minutes at it.

So it has been with Cap/Fug - by the far the best volume of the novel so far (for me at least). In fact, it is so good, so beautifully constructed, so deliciously peppered with twists and turns, so fantastically well-scripted that I can't bring myself to discuss it in detail here because, a) I will simply not do it justice and b) I will spoil it for those of you who are (hopefully) enjoying it every bit as much as I did. Needless to say, my first Proust revelation, back in volume 1, that he is actually very funny, has been matched by revelation number 2, that his capacity to surprise you is every bit as spendid. There aren't many novels where the line "questions asked fifteen hundred pages earlier finally have their disconsolate answer" might legitimately be used in the liner notes. Not only is this true, and brilliantly so, but so many of the little details and minor characters of previous volumes are reintroduced here as significant - bonus smug marks for Proustanauts who remember the original references, you will probably surprise yourself with how much you can recollect. And there lies that familiar and well-documented regret, that like all great works of art, you'll never again experience it for the first time.

Well it all comes down to this then. 450 pages to go and we are tentatively promised an apocalyptic conclusion - though I'm less inclined to predict this than I was the Grand National result. I'm going to get straight on with Time Regained without a break - frankly, if it's half as good as the last 300 pages have been then I'll be done with it by the end of the week. I can't wait to finish it, but you know what? I'm going to miss the bloody thing when I'm done. The joys of a good book, eh?

Briefly - Civil Disobedience, good and short - one non-stop rant on the failings of democracy. Can't think of any Proustanauts this would appeal to. This Secret Garden - don't bother. Jan Morris' Oxford is far better and a great deal less self-indulgent.