A Slog

Page: TR 273
Pages read since last post: 61
Days reading Proust: 144 (16, 64, 29, 16, 7, 4, 8*)
Books read since last post: 0

Tough going this one. The first half of the book is interesting - almost like a Proust Comeback Special after a few years away, when we get to catch up with all our favourite characters - think Blues Brothers 2000 (but with less BB King and more Vinteuil). Sadly, I've hit a section that is about as enjoyable as Blues Brothers 2000 was and I'm finding it hard to get going. The revelations on memory and art were quite fun at first and Proust's ideas have weathered very well and been recognised as such in recent years. I have limited interest in literary theory though, so it's all been getting a bit desperate for me over the past few days.

My progress also wasn't helped by my reluctant attendance of a stag weekend in Bournemouth - a sorry little crudhole of a seaside town which hardly passed for Balbec. A very weird stag weekend, I have to say - not only did we not see any cricket whatsoever, but just as we appeared to be about to enter a bookshop, we were instead redirected by the "Best" Man into an establishment a few doors away which appeared to be staffed entirely by young ladies of the scantily clad variety. Some of this band of young girls, I hesitate to suggest, may even have been daughters of Gomorrah and had no shame in indulging acts of this variety in a very public fashion - even adopting an elevated position upon a stage or platform, such that one's eyes were naturally drawn to this debauchery. Our hero would not have been impressed.