“There are few things humans are more dedicated to than unhappiness.”
I like a book like this sometimes, as it replaces or mimics (even fleetingly) the feeling of reading a long and difficult book. It’s not a reading guide, but more of a mini-biography and dissemination of some of the ideas and events from Marcel Proust’s life and work. I have read the first three volumes in In Search of Lost Time, so while I haven’t read all of it, I am close to the halfway point in the book. The experience really takes on the idea of a “river novel” both in terms of scope and flow, but also in the sense of really being immersed in it. Proust is not Joyce and doesn’t necessarily want you to be in the direct mindset and mental process of someone experiencing something, but does want to run you through the mental activity and experience of some going through something, usually a social event or some other interpersonal experience.
This little book by Alain de Botton, tells more about the life of Proust (the novel is not really a roman a clef, and Proust fought against that characterization) where Proust often found himself bedridden with anxiety, fatigue, and physical limitations. He had crippling stomach issues, and often could barely make it through the day without a constant struggle. He is not so much like our narrator from the novel who might well be more like an astral-projection version.
This little book takes on various ideas and then relates then back to Proust’s life or work in some way. It’s a stand in, and I would hope a motivation. I’ve been trying to go back to the next Proust volume every year or two over the last five, but like Marcel, I do find it all pretty exhausting.
