Reading Proust In Foxborough

Technical Stuff

2012-01-25T14:48:00.002-05:00

I am in the ugly process of changing a 12 year old (maybe older) email address to something more contemporary. My whole life is linked to that email, and even my blogs. Detaching and reattaching is unbelievably complex. Merging, purging, changing, setting hair on fire. So far I have only locked myself out of two sites.

This is just a test to make sure I can blog with a "new" identity. Proust never had these 21st century problems.
Ye gods.!

Proust Bloggers Active Again

2012-01-18T10:47:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of Proust Blogs of interest this week. I am using a new version of Blogger and feeling my way in. Think I might like to return to the old. Why does everyone fix things that aren't broken?

I am still working my way through Albertine living with the narrator in Paris. Nothing new has happened.

The blogs, forthwith: The Strangeness of Words

A Year of Reading Proust

I have been re-reading Proust for far longer than a year. Over time, sort of like the novel. Happy New Year to all.

Odette

Re-reading Proust in Paris

2011-12-26T15:06:00.001-05:00

An Apple guru reads and re-reads and then reads some more? Technical manuals? Nope, Proust. How cool is that? And in the original French. My college French never reached that level.   Camus? Oui. Proust? Non.

This is an interesting essay for us Proust afficionados.   Take a look. Thoughts on Reading Proust Again

The author is right. Proust is not difficult.   Lots of characters, but after a few reads they're like old friends. Long sentences and no dialog tags? Check, but one gets used it this. I am still reading about Albertine living in Marcel's family apartment in Paris and going out every afternoon to do what? The narrator thinks the lady is up to no good. He's probably right.

In Search of "Good Reads"

2011-12-07T09:22:00.000-05:00

Good Reads, a web site for book lovers has a discussion devoted to Marcel Proust. Who knew? I never realized they were into anything except current fiction and non-fiction. The site can be hard for a newbie to navigate, but here is the link to the Proust discussion. Marcel Proust and Good Reads

ISOLT is, of course, In Search Of Lost Time. Explore Good Reads

Onward with Proust.

2011-12-01T10:45:00.000-05:00

Found a new (to me) Proust book. It looks interesting, although I am always a bit suspicious of academic writing with its long (sometimes tedious) sentences and big words, but let's not make an apriori (ha! ha!) judgement, because the book does seem readable. Reading Proust at Oxford

The book is actually about reading in Proust. Reading Reading Proust at Oxford? How circuitous!

I am still reading about Marcel and the sleeping Albertine. Marcel isn't reading; he is watching. Is Albertine like a princess who will awaken from a kiss? Albertine is a very human girl with faults and tics. I can perfectly understand why she lies all the time. She probably never envisioned the (somewhat) creepy household and practically being a captive in it. Granted, a captive in good clothes. She has very little life. Or does she? The narrator is obsessed with her, suspecting her of lesbianism, but then he suspects everyone. One gets the idea that everyone in Paris is at least bi-sexual. Maybe they were. What do I know?

Suspicions and imagination run rampant in the narrator's mind. That's what happens to a writer. He can't stop imagining. What if?

Albertine Sleeping

2011-11-24T12:03:00.000-05:00

I just read the section of Proust where he goes on for pages about watching Albertine sleep. Very lyrical and touching, really. Albertine is still mysterious to me, and also to the narrator. But one can see her in Balbec with her jaunty cap and nose in the air on her bike. Those girls who he found so fetching, and now one is asleep in his bed. This is a wonderful passage.

Reading a bit of Proust off and on before bedtime. Albertine comes and goes. He refuses to accompany her but he is suspicious of her errands. He consults the Duchess for clothing ideas for his mistress. What a crazy life.

Happy Thanksgiving to my readers who celebrate Thanksgiving, and if you don't, well, pause a minute and consider your blessings: relatives, friends, hearth, work, hobbies, nature, sports, whatever gives you succor and pleasure.

Onward,

Grapeshot

Proust and Dreyfus

2011-10-28T10:12:00.001-05:00

Last night in my reading, the Duke and Duchesse of Guermantes were at loggerheads because she was a Dreyfusard and he was not, and be blamed her politics for his not being named president of The Jockey Club. Here is a link to a letter from Proust on the topic of Dreyfus, a very divisive period in French political/military history.

Proust and Dreyfus

The Duchesse de Guermantes has a wardrobe full of Fortuny dresses which she says would be suitable for Albertine. Lucky girl.

Albertine Ensconced in Marcel's Family Apartment In Paris

2011-10-27T18:51:00.000-05:00

So one is reading along and eveything is pretty much as usual . . . Mme. Verdurin and her parties and who's in and who's out and Marcel mentions Vintieul and Albertine mentions that she know his sister and her friend!

If you read Proust you know that this is powerful and unwelcome news. Marcel hightails it away from Balbec and back to not-so-gay-Paree faster than you can utter "Le petite phrase."   He's got to get Albertine away from those bad women.

At last a little action, and I segue from The Cities of the Plain into The Captive.   Now the Duchesse de Guermantes is recommending clothes for the young lady, and mama and Francoise are tut-tutting, and Marcel doesn't go out. What are things coming to?

Movement in fiction is a good thing. Albertine is first described on her bicycle. That Proust guy knew a thing or two, didn't he?

Follow ProustTweet on Twitter

2011-10-19T09:45:00.000-05:00

Proust's entire novel is in the process of being tweeted on twitter. Of course some of Proust's sentences are much longer than the tweet space. Can the tweeter cope? Follow and see. Sometimes I wish I were so clever. No, I always wish I were just a little bit cleverer.

Marcel Proust

@ProustTweet Combray, France

Proust's entire 7-volume novel rewritten as a series of spontaneous daily tweets. (Previous Tweets available at http://tinyurl.com/yzqp3hc)

http://www.proustguide.com

Jennifer Egan read Proust

2011-10-15T15:30:00.000-05:00

I was in the audience today at the Boston Book Festival, when Jennifer Egan talked about reading Proust. Apparently she, like many, had tried and failed once Swann and Odette had married and gone on to more domestic scenarios. She actually read Proust with a book group and IT TOOK THEM FIVE YEARS! She said five babies were born in the years the group read Proust. But they finished. It is taking me about that long on my 3rd reading, because life intervenes and I had to stop and read about Spain to prep for a trip to that fabulous country.

Egan also mentioned that Proust's thoughts about time influenced her Pulitzer Prize novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad.

The Festival enjoyed glorious if windy fall weather, but not yesterday's pounding rain. Copley Square teemed with readers, writers, publishers and all those who are part of the business of writing and books. Unfortunately, there was only one food vendor, and man does not lived by grilled cheese alone. Last time I went by, there must have been two hundred people in line. The sparrows in the park were out in force to scrounge for treats, as were the pigeons. The way the pigeons wheeled around and took flight reminded me of the pigeons swooping around the Parador in Carmona. Spain had many doves, too, and swallows and some handsome magpies which I haven't seen for years. Pigeons seem to have a collective flock instinct that I find interesting.

The suburban trains in both directions were crowded, unusual for a Saturday. Nothing like the little train that took the dinner guests to the Verdurins.    Pigeons may exhibit the same behavior, but trains schlepping folks into Boston have nothing in common with the Verdurin's little band.

I will be reading Proust again hoping to get through Sodom and Gommorah before winter cometh.

Have you ever had "a visit from the goon squad?"

The Other Odette

Packing Up Proust's Apartment

2011-09-17T09:45:00.000-05:00

Another Youtube video, with good commentary. Oh, to have a cultivated British voice.

Proust's Apartment

A Proust Week

2011-08-25T19:20:00.001-05:00

Here in Foxborough, not far from the Massachusetts coastline, we are preparing for Hurricane Irene. However neither storm nor earthquake can keep us from Proust, who received his own share of PR this week.

First, there was a description with photos of the famous Cork Lined Room. A Visit To The Cork Lined Room . Fortunately, the blogger took time to sample some restaurants. Proust would approve.

Next, there's a Proust meetup in L.A. How cool is that? Marcel would be intrigued. I Love Proust in LA.   Unfortunately, Foxborough is too far away from Tinseltown to make it practical or economical to join the group, alas.

Next, some sad news. The director of "Time Regained," Raul Ruiz has died. He just had a new movie out too.   Raul Ruiz dies .

Your faithful correspondent has been reading Proust again, still in Balbec and La Raspelier, and the humor is lovely and subtle and I am enjoying it ever so much. Proust is so sly and so witty.

The Other Odette

Proust Summarized on YouTube

2011-08-07T11:09:00.000-05:00

I had to idea. Thought the Monty Python folks were the only ones with temerity to summarize Proust (they failed), but here is another go at it. Proust Summarized on YouTube Take a look.

Proust on film

2011-07-31T19:06:00.000-05:00

I saw the dramatization of Proust's last "book" in Cambridge, MA several years ago. Catherine Deneuve played Odette, a casting that would never have occurred to me. The film was quite good. There were no car chases, no explosions, no blood and gore, and I don't think there was a seventeen year old in the house. Just a hushed, reverent audience.

Here is a link to an NYTimes article about the man who created the film. A Mild Mannered Maniac.

The last volume of the great tome is, to my mind, the best, and I found the great denouement utterly thrilling.

The Other Odette

The Funniest Man in Paris

2011-07-17T13:12:00.000-05:00

The humor in Proust is always surprising and sometimes barbed but often rather diffident. I totally missed it in my first two passes through the great Oeuvre. Here is a blogger who didn't miss a thing. The Verdurins certainly come in for their share of having fun poked at them. Jeez, sometimes you really have to jump through hoops to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition.

The Funniest Man in Paris

Eating Madelines in Seattle

2011-07-06T12:27:00.000-05:00

Or how about a petite madeline with a cuppa tea in Paris? On the subject of madelines, I must confess that I've had the molds for ever so long, but have yet to screw up my courage to actually make some. I think this is because I read a recipe saying you must only make enough batter to fill the madeline molds in one baking session, because the batter absolutely did not keep for a second batch an hour or so later.

Seemed like a difficult task with a high rate of failure. One of these days I'll throw caution to the wind and whip up a batch. Take a photo. Let you know how they are. I do not expect a Proustian experience, no that would come with my grandma's fried chicken or tomatoes from the garden. Maybe her strawberry jam. It would only be something my grandma cooked. She never used a recipe and her short pudgy fingers moved so deftly, whether she was making bread or flouring a frying chicken.

Here is the article from the Seattle paper. And many of us have read Proust, multiple times, in English and French and for all I know maybe Croation. Eating Madelines with Proust in Seattle

Sleeping With Proust - Or Not

2011-06-24T10:19:00.000-05:00

Last night, tired after returning from a literary soiree, I headed to bed early, and discovered my trusty Kindle was still downstairs, as was the book we bought at the party. And this week's New Yorker. Grrrr.

Good old Proust was still on the nightstand, with its (perhaps) mouse-nibbled cover. I remembered that I had left off at the Verdurin's dinner party at Raspelier, over-looking the coast and not far from Balbec where Proust often spent part of the summer. This is Cities of the Plain.

Charlus prefers strawberry juice to orangeade, both homemade by Madame Verdurin's esteemed cook, no doubt. By the way he makes his choice, the narrator notes the Baron's preference for men over woman and speculates that he's a woman in a man's body. Wow! Was Proust ever ahead of his time! Transgender stuff. The Baron goes on to make a fool of Madame Verdurin, not a terribly difficult thing to do. She's such a fraud and a social climber and manipulative to the max, one of these great characters that we love to hate. I nodded off after a half-dozen pages, which I would have done with even the most hair-raising thriller, so don't blame Proust. Tired is tired. And I like it ever so much. I am tempted to get Proust on the Kindle, too.

If you are a Proust scholar (I am not, alas) or take an interest in literary studies, I have the monograph for you. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/new_literary_history/summary/v042/42.1.lurz.html

Back in the day, when I had perhaps ambitions to be a scholar, I would have dived into this. At least Proust and I are in synch in that it is summer in Balbec and summer in Foxborough, although the rains and cool weather are more spring-like. The calendar says summer. Now do I want Orangeade or Strawberry Juice? Hmmmm.

Odette, the Other One

Pondering Proust in Montgomeryville, PA

2011-06-06T12:43:00.001-05:00

A newspaperman in Montgomeryville, PA found a great column piece when he ordered a little package of madelines at the local coffee shop. Ya just never know!

Proust Inspires a Column

I did like his answers to the quiz, which normally I don't, but these had the right amount of insouciance.

Odette, the other one

Proust in The Park and the Proust Support Group

2011-05-27T21:03:00.000-05:00

Some nice photos and observations:

Proust in the Park

And if you live near Venice, no not THAT Venice, you may want to join the Proust Support Group.

Proust Support Group

Proust Anecdote

2011-05-25T10:03:00.000-05:00

Good morning, readers! It's 10:55 a.m. in Foxborough, and for the first time in weeks, the sun is shining. I got so excited I cooked steak and eggs for breakfast, hoping that will see us through the day. The orange cat is patrolling the house, hoping to sneak out and bag a chipmunk or two.
The Huffington Post review of the new movie that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival (Tree of Life) has a fun Proust anecdote. Read down a few paragraphs and you'll find it. Movie sounds wonderful. How often can one actually say that?

Me? I am trying to catch up on this season's Treme, which is so good, and I love the multiple story lines that converge and diverge. Kind of like Proust.

I'm almost finished with my Traveler's Tales of Spain book, and ready to dive into the narrator's problems again, and everyone is at Balbec, so the reading will even be seasonal.

Here is the link:

Fun Proust Anecdote

Odette

Reading Proust in Minneapolis

2011-05-24T15:49:00.000-05:00

Proust has done it again! He's listed in the top 10 books of all time. These are all novels except for one short story collection, by the way, and the list has strengthened my resolve to read Middlemarch, the only book on the list I haven't read. I'm finishing a book of Traveler's Tales of Spain, as we are visiting there before the end of the year.

It's been a week for azaleas and rhododendrons (not hawthorns) here in Massachusetts. Rains every day and we see the sun only rarely. Today, as least was warm and I was able to weed the garden. The narrator would still be bundled up in coats and scarves. Perhaps I put the winter coats, gloves and scarves away prematurely.

Here is the link to the best books:

Top 10 Books of All Time

Odette

Fortuny and Proust Revisted

2011-05-14T08:59:00.001-05:00

Fortuny Dress

Photographe à Dublin has reminded me of the relationship of Fortuny and Proust. A Google search has provided the following links. Google is actually supposed to be sending me Proust links, but the well has dried up lately and my reading of Proust has been temporarily suspended due to lots of projects at home and an upcoming trip to Spain and Portugal which requires some in depth reading about those two countries. The nice thing about Proust is that you can pick up the book after long intervals and come right back into the story. I left my friends in La Raspeliere and now as summer approaches (here in New England it seems to be a long time coming) I will try to return to the narrator and his mild adventures.

Here are the Fortuny links. When I traveled to Venice, I had no idea there was a Fortuny museum there, alas. Venice, like Paris, was one of those cities which lived up to its billing. San Francisco always has, as well. Without more ado, some great Fortuny links, many with mentions of Proust.
Mariano FORTUNY Y MADRAZO: http://www.senses-artnouveau.com/biography.php?artist=FOR

Fortuny in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariano_Fortuny_%28designer%29

Fortuny Museum in Venice:

http://www.whattoseeinvenice.com/fortuny-museum-venice/

The Fortuny gown: http://www.chick.net/proust/fortuny.html

Fortuny museum photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevharb/3309836553/in/photostream/

Proust Inspires Pulitzer Winner

2011-04-18T19:39:00.000-05:00

Janet Egan's novel, A Visit From the Good Squad, inspired by Proust's great work, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Egan's novel, like Proust's is obsessed with time. For all of us Proust People, this is an exciting day. Congratulations to Egan on her stellar achievement.

Read about it here:
Egan Wins Pulitzer

Reading Proust in Arizona

2011-04-08T10:12:00.001-05:00

Aside from the warm weather, this would be a good week for Proust fans to be in Arizona! Hey, it's not all guns, cacti and canyons. I love Arizona, the scenery and the sky and the warmth. Here is the link:

Proust in Arizona

You find people celebrating Proust in the farthest corners. Flagstaff as well as Foxborough. Isn't it wonderful?

I spent a fantastic week in Flagstaff at the Indian Powwow many many years ago, a week I should write about. The area around Flagstaff purportedly has mystical powers. The peaks (San Francisco, I think, but memory is treacherous) are holy. Sedona is so lovely it breaks your heart, all those red rocks, the high desert, the light, the possibilties.

Odette

Messing with the Classics

2011-03-30T10:17:00.000-05:00

Nobody except the Monty Python gang messes with Proust, except respectfully. Here is a stimulating article. I am finding more and more good stuff in the Guardian. Update the classics at your own risk

I don't think anything is actually "sacred" but of course bowdlerizing Mark Twain by removing the "N' word from Huck Finn and substituting "slave" is the height of wrong-mindedness. Without television and radio and youtube and cell phone cameras and our new devices, we only have first hand accounts and diaries revealing real speech. And prudery in revealing real speech and committing it to paper and on film was a problem until the sixties when movies came of age and then HBO did it for television. Can you imagine the Sopranos without the "F" word? How did they speak in the wild west? Building the railroads? On the Erie Canal. Did the Pony Express riders swear? Did women? Ever? Who knows.

Occasionally Proust surprises us with some comment or sexual revelation, and it's so seldom one hardly knows what to think? Ah, Marcel, you persist in puzzling me.

Not being into so-called "celebrities," I have no idea who Jerry Hall is, but I do concur that she probably doesn't read Proust, at least in toto. We could pop over to Britain and give her a pop quiz on which reception was the most boring and on what was served as La Raspeliere at the Verdurin dinners. Ha ha. We all flunk.

Should Proust be updated? What a Gargantuan task that would be.

Wondering,

Odette

Become Proust for a Week

2011-03-26T09:51:00.001-05:00

This article tells you how to make the Proust tour of Normandy. Had to admit I was practically drooling, mostly thinking of the oysters, but also the Proustian ambiance in every corner. Imagine the grande promenade and the sea views and examining (don't touch!) the tapestries and driving a convertible and staying in the beloved hotels. They're not even THAT pricey. I am practically swooning as my imagination plays out a week like this.

Live Life of Proust for a Week

Of course, you probably will need a stylish new wardrobe, but no Galliano, please. Poor man. It must have been the strain. Silk and linen and organic cottons will do, and if jeans, only the skinniest, priciest ones. Good luggage, natch, maybe some vintage leather Hartmans. Of course you have a doorman to carry, so wheels not necessary. Some big wonderful sun glasses, and an old-fashioned wicker picnic hamper with all the accroutements. How lovely to imagine. I am just about ready to book my flight.

Vintage Leather Harmann luggage

And we absolutely must visit Elstir's studio. Oh, alas, he's imaginary but a visit to Giverney will be a good substitute.

Pack your (vintage) suitcase with some new duds and let's get out of here. Mais oui!

Wine, Bread, Pate and fruit, n'est pas?

Odette, swooning

"Proust" concert in The Big Apple

2011-03-20T09:42:00.001-05:00

Found on Craig's List, of all crazy things. Alas, I can't be in New York on this date, but wouldn't it be inspiring to hear the musical works that inspired Proust? And maybe even catch the "petite phrase" from the Sonata?

If you're a Proustian and in New York, go for it!

Proust Concert in NYC

Odette, the Foxborough one

The Goon Squad, Proust and the Sopranos

2011-03-13T15:36:00.000-05:00

I loved the HBO series, The Sopranos, I love Proust, and ergo I will surely love Jennifer Egan's prize-winning book, A Visit from the Goon Squad. Sounds like my cuppa tea with the Madeline dunked in, or maybe an Oreo in milk.
Read the review here: A Visit From the Goon Squad Egan said her book was partially inspired by The Sopranos and In Search of Lost Time. Egad!

I haven't been posting because a) I've been writing, or rather rewriting, b) social networking to publicize that The Shadow Warriors is on the Kindle c) taking a "pacing" class d) exchanging manuscripts with a friend, and d, well, you know, staying busy. In addition. the interesting Proust posts have more or less dried up. Now that doesn't mean that Proust is a flash in the pan; maybe the other bloggers are doing a-d too.

Feelings of guilt assail me when I neglect our Narrator too long. The New England winter has been brutal and part of the time I found myself napping and watching TV.

Here's so a lovely summer in Balbec and a spring with the hawthorns blooming along the byways.

The Other Odette

Reading Proust on the Metro?

2011-03-07T10:39:00.000-05:00

The interesting Proust posts have dried up, and so has, currently my reading. I'm editing a just completed novel of mine (suspense), and trying to get another one ready for the Kindle. And sending out stories and poems. And taking a class. And doing "stuff" for my Toastmasters club. And coping with winter and cooking up a storm and ... well, you know. I had to read a book for my class, so got that done. A wonderful literary suspense novel called, "The Whole World." Published in 2010. Proust, I think, would approve.

Today I found this really cool photo. Note the sepia tones. Assume one of the two people reading is reading Proust. The girl? Obviously not the whole work but maybe the first volume. Swann in Love? It's always wonderful to see someone reading on the commuter train or the subway. Take a look.

Reading Proust on the Train

One of these days I'll get back to Marcel. By now, I'm so deep into the reading and it has been going on for so long and the plot is the novel itself, so it's not like I have to re-orient myself if I put it down for a couple months. That's the nice thing about Proust. You can dip into him over a lifetime once you've read the whole novel once. And always find something different, something wonderful, something, dare we say it, sublime? Ah Marcel.

Belle Epoque Jewelry from Proust "survivor"

2011-02-05T10:04:00.001-05:00

Mon Dieu! Such lovely pieces and what a great story. The model for Elstir. How I love the scene with Marcel and Albertine in Elstir's studio.

I particularly covet the gold cigarette case, the ladybug and the little box. And don't the prices seem reasonable for such beautiful baubles? Imagine someone from the Belle Epoque living into our times. What a lot of history. The changes we have undergone simple boggle the mind. Oh my!

Here is the lovely article with the photos. Jewelry from the time of Proust

Madame Guermantes

2011-01-31T10:25:00.000-05:00

It's a movement! Really weird how all of a sudden bloggers, by which I mean Proust bloggers will jump on the same scene, character, or subject matter of the Great Work. This week, a blond lady of distinction has that honor. Have to confess I never liked her, but then if you really think about it, who except the Grandmother and the narrator (and he sometimes whines) are really likable in Proust? I used to be fond of St. Loup, but he became so tedious with Rachel. Swann was sympathetic, but he seemed remarkably blind to Odette's faults. Maybe the volume should have been titled as "Blind In Love," instead of "Swann In Love." I don't know.

Think about it. Do you gossip about your friends? Do you have just an ever-so-slight love of Schadenfreude? We are all unsympathetic in many ways. Long live Proust for portraying us, warts and all.

Here is another reference to that Guermantes woman. Madame Guermantes

Madame Guermantes

2011-01-30T18:28:00.000-05:00

Another blogger who finds Proust's (and Marcel's) relationship with Mme. de Guermantes complex. I haven't found much in the way of good Proust blogging lately, and I'm been doing edits on a novel of my own, battling the rip-roaring New England winter, and whatever, making big pots of soup to keep us warm.

In NYC over the weekend, amazed and aghast at the Totally Buried cars, the slush, the possibility of breaking your ankle with a misstep. And the variety of boots! More amazing, still. I wore an ancient pair of Sperry "Marsh Boots," which I call swamp boots when I am not calling them sh__kickers.
Just to look at the footwear and the leg wear (anyone for jeggings or skinny jeans?) at the Whitney yesterday in the Edward Hopper show was trippy. Proust would have been at home at the Whitney, swathed in scarves and greatcoats. We were all swathed.

Here is the blogger's link for a good read about the Guermantes lady.

The duchess de Guermantes

Onward,

The Other Odette

Which Translation of Proust

2011-01-08T15:07:00.002-05:00

I am deep, deep into the Scott Montcrief translation, because those are the volumes I've had since college. They are ratty and the bindings look like hell, but the age and the tradition redeems these old books in my eyes. Sometime, I will read Lydia Davis, too.

Here is a literate discussion (aren't all discussions of Proust literate) of the various translations. The important thing, the only thing is to READ PROUST. Of course, the original is best, but my rusty, school girl French would never succeed.

Which Translation of Proust

Happy 2011!

2011-01-01T15:02:00.001-05:00

I hope to finish the last books of Temps Perdu this year. I've been shilly-shallying too long. Onward. But please, Marcel, a few less dinner parties.
No madelines have issued from my kitchen yet, and perhaps that should be another resolution. Finish Proust, bake Madelines.

Et maintenant?

Odette

I found Proust on Flickr!

2010-12-29T10:43:00.000-05:00

Three ways of reading Proust
What would Marcel, the narrator think of e-books and the Kindle?

My novel of technology and desire, The Shadow Warriors, just came out on the Kindle for $2.99. Below is the link. The novel is framed by an "Info War" that is disrupting life world wide after malicious software agents penetrate computer systems. My sleuth is a computer security sleuth, and she bites off more than she can chew, romance-wise as well as with some scary new technology.

Here are some excerpts from reviews of the trade paperback and a link to the Amazon Kindle website. This book marries technology, story-telling, international travel, even food. What's not to like?

All of the characters are believable and richly crafted, and the plot is something you might find in an Ian Fleming novel: taking us to foreign cities and cultures, rich with language and cuisine that are reflected delightfully within the prose.” Odyssey Reviews

“A techno-thriller for men AND women.” Al Past, Reviewer

“I found the description of computer sleuthing and the development of soft-ware weapons that would bring the cyber universe to its knees hit the right balance between technology and a rip-roaring good story.” Scott Kimmich, Reviewer

“. . . I could believe in each of the characters and their interrelationships and also because Copek's Raymond Chandlerish repartee is witty without being wearing.” Lowell Thing, WhatIs

“This is an excellent fast-paced cyberthriller, full of deceptions and high-tech intrigue.” Kestrel

The Shadow Warriors

End of BSP, i.e. blatant self-promotion, and back to Proust and the Guermantes and the Verdurins and Cottard and all of our French friends.

Recipe for Madeleines

2010-12-18T12:50:00.000-05:00

I found my madeleine molds, so there is no longer an excuse not to make them. The molds are so petite, and the cookies will be extremely delicate. Hope my cooking skills are up to the task. The spirit of Proust will guide me. I think this is an old recipe from the Sunday New York Times, possibly under Craig Claiborne's reign.

Madelines
4 eggs at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

1. Grease well and flour pans for for dozen madelines. If only have as many pans are avilable, cut the recipe in half and make the second batch after the first is completed. This is because the butter, on standing, settles and causes a heavy rough bottom layer. Place racks near the bottom of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Beat the eggs with the salt, adding sugar gradually until the mixture is pale and very thick. The mixture drops from the beaters to form a rope that gradually disappears. Add vanilla.

3. Sift about one-quarter of the flour at a time over egg mixture. Fold it in until no more flour show.

4. Add the butter, about a tablespoon at a time and fold it in as quickly as possible. Fill the prepared pans about three-quarters full, place in oven immediately and bake until brown, about 10 minutes.

Yield: About four dozen.

Somewhat intimidating, no? We shall see what happens.

Reading Proust On Trains

2010-12-18T09:59:00.001-05:00

I am still plowing through the Verdurin's dinner party at Raspelier, the country place high on the bluffs overlooking the Atlantic not too far from Balbec. So far I've gleaned the menu partially consists of a) bouillabaise, b) a fish and c) a strawberry concoction for dessert. Mme. Verdurin is as always, vain and cunning and cruel as is her mate. They haven't changed much since they savaged Swann.

A comic moment was when the hostess mentioned Elstir's wife-to-be was a common "streetwalker" and Elstir, the painter, fell out of favor. Odette, of course, was a courtesan whose favor they shamelessly curried at the expense of poor Swann. Ah, the irony.

We are reading and blogging Proust in Foxborough, and here is a gentleman who reads Proust on trains, maybe even in Arkansas, a state not normally on my radar, and one I do not associate with Proust.
Take a look for yourself. Reading Proust on Trains

I see the blogger has used the same photo of Proust that I have. Hmmmm. Must put Proust and blogging on the back burner for some Christmas cookies. More anon.

Odette

Blogging Proust for the Holidays

2010-12-14T16:25:00.000-05:00

I've been reading Proust before bedtime, and somehow, now we are at an endless dinner party at the Verdurin's rented house in the neighborhood of Balbec, at least close enough for a short train ride (with complications). The Verdurin's decorating is critiqued. A fish is served for dinner. The food is seldom mentioned. I guess that is because the conversation is so scintillating or that everyone is jockeying for social position and might as well be eating cardboard.

Except that these people are FRENCH! Can you believe it? I would so love to know what is served? Of course Mrs. V. doesn't cook it herself, mais non! Charlus is there and Cottard and the part of the "little clan" that summers in Balbec or environs. It is amazing sometimes, that Proust can write so freakin' many words and yet neither the house nor characters are not offered much physical description. Everything is in the head. Not how we write today. No talking heads allowed. Nope. None.

A couple of blogs have caught my eye and you might want to check them out. And I haven't forgotten my promise to publish the Madeline recipe. Bear with me.

The Prisioner

Vision in Combray: Proust Beyond the Madeleines Concluded \\

I am looking forward to progress in Sodom and Gomorrah and then on to the rest of the books, because the last one is the best but one has to "earn" it by reading the whole work.

Odette

Proust and Long Sentences

2010-12-11T09:19:00.000-05:00

One of the reasons reading Proust is such a challenge is the length of his sentences, and no quotes and paragraphs that go on for pages. Not easy for today's reader. You just have to get into the groove as this blogger points out so well.

Proust's Sentences

It's the time of year (and a cold winter already in Europe and New England) when Proust's bundling up in scarves and overcoats seems positively sane.

Stay warm!

Odette

Review of Proust's Overcoat

2010-12-01T10:37:00.001-05:00

You might consider giving Proust's Overcoat to your literate friends for a holiday present. Here is a review to ponder.

Proust's Overcoat

By the way, this is the season to whip up a batch of Madelines. I'll post the recipe soon. Stay tuned.

Who Wrote Vinteuil' s Sonata?

2010-11-25T10:07:00.000-05:00

Interesting blog on the oft-researched Sonata with the "petite phrase," the love song for Swann and Odette.

Who Wrote Vinteuil's Sonata

The Shadow Warriors

2010-11-20T13:39:00.000-05:00

I am pleased to announced that my novel of technology and desire, The Shadow Warriors, will soon be available on the Kindle. In time for Christmas, I hope. Information Warfare is just as relevant in 2010 as it was in the 90's when I began writing the book.

Proust's Religion

2010-11-20T13:28:00.001-05:00

Proust and Religion

Imagery yes, dogma no.

A blogger posts about religion and Proust. Well, Proust did like churches. I thought of Proust today in the supermarket when I saw the pineapple all slice or chunked and ready for salads. Proust was fond of a pineapple salad with weird ingredients.

I would so have loved it if he ever mentioned the food served at some of the soirees, but he never breathes a word. They could have been eating Chinese take-out. But of course, they weren't. Damn. Inquiring minds want to know.

Odette

Reading Practically Everyone in Dedham

2010-11-13T22:30:00.001-05:00

The weekend of the New England Crimebake in Dedham, MA, a conference for crime writers (and readers). Good this year with Charlaine Harris, Dennis Lehane, Catherine Hall Page, Julia Spencer-Fleming and other great New England Crime Writers. And editors and agents, too. Such fun to hang out at the bar and talk writing, shoes, robot vacuum cleaners, writing, New York, the Yankees, the Red Sox, various presses, writing, and well, yanno. . . .

I pitched my latest almost complete oeuvre, which I had to go back and fix after the main character killed the bad guy. Man, that changes everything.

I realized that every manuscript I've ever written has a journey as big part of the story. The current novel is a road trip, racing up and down the Eastern seaboard and then off to Chicago and finally Reno and the Black Rock Dessert. In Festival Madness, it as the trip to Burning Man. In Promiscuous Mode, the character traveled to Wisconsin. In World of Mirrors, the trip was to East Germany. In the Shadow Warriors the characters congregated at a German university after bogeying through Singapore and Hong Kong.

I just returned from San Francisco. Who said every novel is either a journey or a quest? Or both. Think of On the Road. Think of Canterbury Tales.

An editor said the most boring beginning is to find the character setting out on a journey. I dunno. Sounds good to me.

Marcel went to Balbec and to Venice. And to visit Aunt Leonie. I think Proust was a homebody, especially in his later years. Finally he locked himself into his lonely room and wrote.   That is what I need to do to finish this book. Why does it take so long?

The Other Odette

The Proust Interview

2010-11-06T10:25:00.000-05:00

Every month Vanity Fair asks a celebrity a series of questions known as the Proust Interview. The questions are general and can be answered (perhaps differently) at various stages of life. Here is a link: to the web site

Imagine my surprise during Bouchercon, the mega-mystery writing and fan convention recently in San Francisco, when best-seller Lee Child was asked questions from the Proust Questionnaire during an interview. His answers were flip and irreverent and it is galling that I can't find anything relating to the SUBSTANCE of the interview on the web. There are a gazillion posts about Bouchercon and Lee Child, who threw a Reacher Creature Party on Friday. But zilch, nada, nothing about the interview. Rats!

I was too jet-lagged and wine-soaked to go to the party. In fact the entire convention passed in a kind of blur. But San Francisco is a lovely town and we strafed through the City Lights Bookstore, a clean, well-lighted place that Proust would have loved. We also attended a San Francisco noir event, at which I was even more jet-lagged. I need to think seriously about arriving en site one day earlier than planned to catch up on sleep. Eschew wine. Take brisk walks. Whatever.

The most fruitful day was the first where Elizabeth Lyons gave a writing/editing session, and I learned so much. I was also taking an online class on writing The First Five Pages of the novel. And we had company and had to do a major house cleaning and other stuff and now I wonder how I stayed awake at all.

We arrived during the week of San Francisco's "summer," of beautiful sunny weather. Stayed not at the convention hotel but at Land's End, on the other side of town, a long but cheap bus ride down Geary Street. The Seal Rock Inn is situated at a scenic point and has the fame of Hunter Thompson having written one of his book's there. We like it because of the location, the fact that you get a large suite with a fridge, and free Wi-Fi. And the bus. And the restaurant that serves big breakfasts reasonably. And the funk. The Grand Hotel at Balbec, it ain't.

I am reading Proust again, and the Verdurin's party is almost as long as the Guermantes, but more interesting with Cottard, Charlus, the Verdurins, the couple you love to hate, and a cast of many. Proust is a big change from Janet Evanovich and Jacqueline Winspear, two writers I read on my Kindle during the long flights. A Kindle is wonderful to load up a bunch of books to go. No heavy piles of paper, just the little device with it's recharging cord, of course.

If I ever find out more about Lee Child's answers to the Proust questionnaire, I'll post. In the meantime, I'm still catching up on my sleep.

Proust's Overcoat

2010-10-22T15:48:00.000-05:00

I have been at a writing conference in San Francisco and was able to pay a visit to the City Lights Bookstore, a place I have craved to see since I was a freshman in college and was introduced to the poetry of Ferlinghetti and some of the "Beat" writers. I even became a lifetime member of a short-lived coffee house called "The Outside."

City Lights lived up to my expectations--how often does THAT happen? My significant other, my son and I all bought books. Guess what one of my selections was? Proust's Overcoat. Written by Italian journalist and writer Lorenza Foschini and translated by Eric Karpeles of Paintings In Proust authorship,

I read Proust's Overcoat on the long flight home, and found it enchanting. It is the story of one man's obsession with Proust and his effort to salvage Proust's writing and possessions after his death. Obsession can be a good thing.

Some nights I do read a few pages of Cities of the Plain and am enjoying it. The Verdurin's dinner parties are somehow livelier than the Guermantes, don't you think? And the little band of girls continues to intrigue us as the narrator spends another summer at Balbec.

Do pick up a copy of Proust's Overcoat. Unlike his masterpiece, this book is 128 pages, some of them photos. You won't still be reading it six months from now. Hmmm. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Odette

Back to Balbec

2010-09-19T09:35:00.000-05:00

Reading Proust again! We are in The Cities of the Plain, and the narrator and Albertine are hanging out at the seashore, at first before the high season, and now during high season. The Verdurins have rented a house along the coast with a fab view of the ocean. A train is taking "The Little Clan" to the Verdurin's Wednesday dinner party.

I have to confess in all my Proust readings I do not recall the Verdurins renting a summer house in the Balbec neighborhood. I'm really enjoying this part of the book, now that YET ANOTHER endless reception has come and gone. The Guermantes have become bores. I'm sure the Verdurin's party will be much more interesting. Mme. Verdurin is a real piece of work, a wonderful character, which is to say a character that is not very nice. The milk of human kindness does not run in her veins. I am hoping for some conflict and some fireworks and maybe someone will be expelled from The Little Clan.

It was a long slow slog through The Guermante's Way to this point. Albertine flirted like crazy with St. Loup. I couldn't have liked it more.

The Other Odette, licking her chops at the thought of scandal, disgrace and some more hanky-panky.

Romancing the Past

2010-08-26T09:49:00.003-05:00

Does back to school make you nostalgic? Proust readers may identify with this columnist's take on nostalgia and the past.

Romancing the Past

New Proust Blogger!

2010-08-15T10:56:00.000-05:00

Seems like summer belongs to Beach Books and not to the heavy tomes of Proust, although I am reading away in Cities of the Plain.

Here is a Proust blogger with a lot of great historical information. Interesting how two out of the three who inspired the Guermantes women did not like Proust. More Marcel!

Do take a look at this informative blog:

Who's Who in Proust

Still Reading Proust

2010-08-11T19:02:00.000-05:00

I pick up The Cities of the Plain sometimes before bedtime and read a few pages. The narrator is back in Balbec, and Albertine blows hot an cold and lots of stuff about the "liftboy." I'm waiting for an evening with the Verdurins to unfold soon.

Another Proust reader comments in his blog: http://zukointheworld.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/still-reading-proust/

"Still reading Proust" is a state of being. The summer passes apace, with trips, house guests, gardening, bird watching and lots of meals on the grill.
It's amazing to think that Proust and his friends never knew the delights of a meal cooked over charcoal, nor did a lot of people until The Thrill of the Grill hit us. I knew someone who used a hibatchi and grilled steaks and teriyaki meat sticks many, many moons ago. My parents cooked trout in a cast iron skillet over a campfire, trout they had caught just hours before. I never expect to taste trout like that again, but if I did, surely there would be the Proustian experience of Sweetwater Lake and the funky cabins and the wood rat who worried so that my Dad (the tenderest of tender hearts) would harm her and her babies. He took the wood out of the box and left the critters be.

The trout was dipped in a mixture of cornmeal and flour and probably friend in bacon fat, maybe Crisco. How far away those days of my childhood are.

The Apple Trees in the Countryside around Balbec in Spring

2010-06-27T19:23:00.001-05:00

I read the most beautiful passage two nights ago. Proust is back in Balbec wanting to get together with Albertine. He grandmother has died and he mourns her. It is not summer, but spring, and the sea and the landscape are very different than during the high season of summer.
From The Cities of the Plain:

Describing the lush blossoms on the apple trees. ". . . these apple-trees were there in the heart of the country, like peasants, upon one of the highroads of France. Then the rays of the sun gave place suddenly to those of the rain; they streaked the whole horizon, caught the line of apple-trees in their grey net. But they continued to hold aloft their beauty, pink and blooming, in the wind that had turned icy beneath the drench rain; it was a day in spring.

I loved this breathtaking passage of trees and weather and comparing the trees to the peasants, the sudden rainstorm and the prosaic ending: it was a day in spring.

Ah, Proust! You put us all to shame.

The second photo is taken at Giverney.

The Other Odette

Montblanc Proust Pen

2010-06-11T10:02:00.007-05:00

Rats! Just when I thought I had the perfect (parfait) Father's Day gift. No price. Does that tell you something?

Proust Pen

Reading Proust for Fun

2010-06-10T15:40:00.001-05:00

Amazing how many readers are blogging Proust. It almost beats Cat Blog Friday.

Here is another blogger. http://readproust.blogspot.com/

I am still plodding through Sodom and Gomorrah, and not at warp speed, either. Many irons in the fire. Planted the garden, trying to finish my novel, getting ready for house guests, toastmasters speeches, yada, yada. I realized the other day how moth eaten my volume looks. Maybe it's time to invest in a new book.

Off to watch Treme, the Mardi Gras episode. I think Marcel would have liked Mardi Gras. I can just see him, all bundled up, wandering the city of New Orleans, having a drink here and there, and listening to the music, examining the costumes, pondering the meanings, his lips curved in a faint smile. Later he would write it all down.

Odette

Proust is now on Facebook

2010-05-01T09:24:00.001-05:00

Have stranger things happened? Proust is now on Facebook. You can sign on and become a fan.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/In-Search-of-Lost-Time-Marcel-Proust/110452695645104?v=desc

I've just returned from the Edgar Awards in NYC, given annually to those whose 2010 publications excelled in the mystery/crime writing genre.

Due to a panel I sat in on, I bought Robert Arellano's nominated book, Havana Lunar. Read it already. It was short and ultra compelling, not your everyday mystery, and Arellano has a great take on setting and atmosphere as well as character. I really loved this book. Marcel, I think, would approve. The descriptions are great, and for a whodunnit, it's not all that mired down in the conventions of clues and procedure. Plays against the genre in many ways. I love books about Cuba.

Reading Proust South of Foxborough

2010-04-22T13:14:00.000-05:00

Providence, RI is just a hop, skip and a jump from Foxborough, and I see a new Proust blogger has set up shop there. Welcome to the wide world of blogging Proust. I added "Proust in Providence" to the Proust blogs on the home page of this blog.

I am making modest headway in Cities of the Plain, and falling behind in other reading. Ten days of house guests--hard to feed house guests, and almost caught up and then a deathbed watch for a good friend. Wrenching experience.

Again playing catch up before I trek to New York for an annual writer's meeting, i.e. Edgar's Week, named after E.A. Poe (ho! ho! ho!). I'm going to the symposium to find out the state of the genre. Yes. I confess. I not a literary writer like Marcel, but a get-no-respect genre writer, mysteries and suspense, don't cha know? My next novel will be an ordinary one, not crime fiction, which frees me in many respects, but of course I'll keep in mind the good lessons I've learned about conflict and moving the story along.

Unknown wild flowers blooming in the garden. Garlic is huge! Yum. We had beaucoup pineapples to eat over Easter, but we did not make the weird pineapple salad that Marcel ate. Tonight I'm cooking shrimp scampi, ratatouille, and an orange-mascarpone-pistachio tart with a mezze platter for appetizers. Mostly Mediterranean.

I hope to come to a calmer spot in life soon, where Proust can again be savored. In the meantime, onward.

Odette, the other one

Reading Proust Again

2010-04-04T11:40:00.001-05:00

Ah, some stresses in my life have sent me back into the pages of Proust, because I can always fall asleep while reading him. Making way thru the endless party of the Princess de Guermantes. This party is actually more interesting than most of the ones in The Guermantes Way. Charlus always livens up the page, and St. Loup has just made an appearance and he is an appealing character. His relationship with Rachel in some ways echoed Swann and Odette, although St. Loup hasn't married her. Swann is apparently dying, and the reader finds more drama and conflict than in the previous pages.

Onward.

The other Odette

The Cities of the Plain

2010-03-30T10:34:00.001-05:00

This blogger has done such a wonderful summation of the Proust volume that I have been struggling to get "into" that I am all enthused. Just have to get through one more dull party. Ole!

Here is the link. Gosh. Why can't I summarize my novels thusly? And isn't that a cool painting of Proust?

http://www.litkicks.com/ProustIV

Wondering.

It's Holy Week--time to read about Proust's visit to Tante Leonie

2010-03-28T09:58:00.000-05:00

An alert blogger's post reminded me of some of the best passages in Proust, as the narrator and his family visited Tante Leonie for Holy Week.

No hawthorne's blooming in Foxborough yet, but the forsythia is coming and I have garlic plants, put in the ground last fall, that are peeking out of the garden soil, as are the tulips, those the rabbits haven't eaten, jonquils, and (now blooming) crocus. Spring is so exciting. I feel my blood rising with the maple sap which apparently rose early and outfoxed everyone. The spring peeper's broke into their shrill chorus early, too, and the chipmunks came out of hibernation. Birds pairing off. Love it!

Here is the Great Proust Blog
and an lovely web site, too.

The Other Odette

Proust and Euphemisms

2010-03-13T10:35:00.002-05:00

The blogger in the link below takes exception to one of Proust's "euphemisms," but I really liked it because Proust didn't use whatever the current euphemism was (and there were probably many). Instead Proust used something very specific to Swann and Odette, something with meaning to them, and I thought that was an example of his greatness as a writer.
Has anyone noticed, by the way, that "hiking the Appalachian Trail" has become a NEW euphemism, and that in our times, these new expressions come facing at us before the ink is dry.

Here is the blog link:

http://readingwithmytwin.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/euphemisms-101/

A cattleya is an orchid, (shown above, and look at Google images if you want to see hundreds), and Odette always wore one on her decolletage.

The other Odette, who doesn't wear flowers but likes to grow them.

All Things Proust, Both Large and Small

2010-03-05T09:39:00.000-05:00

I found a web site that gives Proustian facts in a nutshell. The brief, most unProustian of answers about the great man. I am amused.

Here is the link.

http://answers.encyclopedia.com/question/marcel-proust-jean-santeuil-296239.html

I have been too busy writing and preparing and delivering a Toastmaster's speech to read anything except the daily papers and The New Yorker. One of these days I'll get caught up.

Seeing a new play in Boston tonight. Last night we went to a New England Pen event at Upstairs at the Square. Harvard Square, of course. In a moment of Proustian recollection, my Significant Other and I were discussing how the square had changed since our early years in Boston, and I thought, also, of the changes to Central Square and Kendall Square (my old stomping grounds). All three squares would be nearly unrecognizable to anyone coming from the past.

The past weighs heavily, like the lead x-ray apron.

Odette

Virginia Woolf Read Proust

2010-02-24T09:41:00.002-05:00

In the twenties, that most fertile period in English (and French) literature, Virginia Woolf read Proust. She probably read him in French. I cannot imagine reading those endless sentences and paragraphs en Francais, but of course well-educated writers of that time would have little difficulty. Strangely enough, the beginning of the work reads rather easily in French. Go figure.

Here is an interesting account of Virginia's reading.

How Virginia Woolf read Proust

Difficulties with Reading Proust

2010-02-08T10:09:00.000-05:00

The great work is temporarily stalled on my nightstand. Proust in Pictures has languished since Christmas. I read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which scared the bejesus out of me, and started The Girl Who Played With Fire which also seems pretty scarey.

Too many projects afloat. Need to give 4 more Toastmaster speeches between now and June. Just finished a revision class. Trying to finish my novel. Need to send out more queries. We have a huge slide scanning project on the home front. Big Love, Damages and The Good Wife occupy my TV time, as does the Food Channel. And I need to learn Word Press. What would Proust do? He'd finish his novel. I don't go out into society much, but of course, the occasional foray is sometimes required. Winter is progressing much too quickly. Spring and the call of the garden will soon arrive.

We had wild turkeys in the yard, necesssitating a trip to PETCO for some cracked corn.

Here is someone else who is having his own Proust troubles. A fellow reader, or non-reader.

http://whatwouldproustthink.blogspot.com/2010/02/first-anniversary.html

Nonetheless, I am determined to forge on, if I could only get by the freaking parties until the last party, the best by far.

Odette

Time Regained

2010-01-24T09:53:00.000-05:00

Here is a review of the Proust movie, Time Regained. I actually saw this movie a few years ago in Harvard Square and thought that they did an excellent job considering how notoriously difficult filming Proust's work must be.

Read on.

http://moviesuntildeath.blogspot.com/2010/01/time-regained-1999.html

Odette

The Cork-Lined Room

2010-01-13T09:30:00.001-05:00

I really like The Cork-Lined Room. The discussion of Proust is excellent with its use of quotes and detail and yet is something every reader can follow--in other words its not too "academic."

Small confession: I used to be in the academic camp and somehow migrated to genre fiction where I'm not really at home either. A wanderer in the city of narrative.

The link to the post with wonderful reflections on Mme. Verdurin, Odette and Marcel is below:

http://thecorklinedroom.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/it-was-a-recognised-joke-in-the-little-clan-among-those-who-were-not-over-endowed-with-wit-to-pretend-that-they-could-never-grow-used-to-saying-mme-swann/

What a cursor-full!

I always like to see how an author handles flowers.

Odette, the other one

Resolved: Finish the second volume

2009-12-31T15:17:00.002-05:00

"Odette" contemplating a New Year's resolution

In the course of things, I don't generally do New Year's Resolutions. Stopped smoking years ago after several NYR's had failed me. I did lose 5 pounds last year and kept it off. And this year I want to finish Proust again. If I can just get by those damned dull parties. So onward.

I've been learning a new computer. Switched from PC to MAC and right now I'm picking up email three different places, and one place just refuses to "Keep as New." After a day it's gone. So I've lost a couple of good Proust messages from Google that didn't hang around very long. Two are linked to this site.

But today I found a true gem. Now let's not laugh too hard. We were all young once, and some of us still are, but not your saintly Odette. Of a certain age, don't ya know?

So here in the link below, a young lady has resolved to read Proust, the great existentialist!
http://www.semissourian.com/story/1598917.html

Now the question is: when will she realize that Proust and Sarte don't have a lot in common. Or do they? Doctoral thesis anyone?

Proust as sleeping potion

2009-12-24T13:12:00.002-05:00

It's a sad commentary when one reads a single page of Proust and falls asleep. Of course, it was late and I am pretty tired these days from the holiday tasks along with the household tasks, getting regular exercise, writing, editing, more writing, volunteer work for writing orgs, and keeping up with all the newspapers and magazines. It's a full life. And oftimes, a tiring one. Hence, dropping off on poor Proust. Still at one of the endless receptions. This time the narrator is afraid that he wasn't REALLY invited. Silly boy.

References to hidden homosexuality. Man, were those guys (and girls) ever in the closet. With the door barred, the lights out, and hiding behind the shoes. Must have been very stressful. I was in college before I knew there was such a thing as a lesbian.

So we're off to do a little last minute shopping, totally unlike moi to wait for the ultimate minute. The older you get, the less clothing, shoes, new furniture, STUFF, you need. You need more time and a bit of a nap every day. Hence, Proust.

My bad!

Odette

On Safari and Other Adventures in Blogging

2009-12-15T20:00:00.000-05:00

This blog doesn't like my new MAC and it sure doesn't like Safari. A day wasted in computer hell, and the formatting really stunk. My most was totally hosed, first with Technorati going crazy and now with the links, etc. Way too much time debugging stuff, when I could have been reading Proust or even contemplating my navel. Now to see what this post looks like.

Odette who doesn't want to be a geek or a guru.

Thankful for Proust and Proust Bloggers

2009-11-24T11:50:00.005-05:00

Bookishness continues his Proust blog. Sue Grafton advises writers to pay attention to minor characters, as Proust does in spades.

http://charlesmatthews.blogspot.com/2009/11/proust-project-day-5.html

Th Cork-lined Room also keeps Proust blogging on a high level:

http://thecorklinedroom.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/the-desires-that-had-surrounded-me-a-short-time-ago-to-go-to-guermantes-to-travel-to-be-happy-were-so-far-behind-me-now-that-their-fulfillment-would-not-have-brought-me-any-pleasure/

Moi? I'm organizing for Thanksgiving. Need a Francoise of my own. And one of these days, a cork-lined room.

The Other Odette

Ten pages a day

2009-11-19T18:37:00.002-05:00

Actually, ten pages per day of Proust is a fairly ambitious goal, unless one has scads of leisure, and who has that.

I haven't read anything for the past ten or so days. Life intrudes. Lately, while sipping a late afternoon glass of wine, I fall asleep in front of the food channel. When I wake up, I don't know where I am (the living room). How can this be?

Read this: http://charlesmatthews.blogspot.com/2009/11/proust-project.html

The Guermantes Way

2009-11-17T20:50:00.003-05:00

Someone else is slogging through the receptions and dinner parties. Doesn't seem to mind.

http://www.litkicks.com/ProustIII/

I'm getting into the next volume, but not in any serious way. Oh for the days when I could sit down and read War and Peace from cover to cover over the holidays. Why has that become so impossible.

Dunno. Onward.

Dissing Proust in Foxborough

2009-11-09T09:17:00.003-05:00

This blog presents all opinions, even the anti-Proust.

By the way, I read some more of "Sodom" the other night, and holey-shamoley, there's another Guermantes reception as an alert reader had warned. Although this one with homo-erotic overtones is more interesting than those that went before.

Here is Gemaine Greer in wrath and finery:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/nov/08/germaine-greer-proust

The other Odette

New Proust Blogger

2009-11-07T09:57:00.002-05:00

Here is a link to a new Proust blogger. Do we read Proust for fun? Why not? Fun is where you find it, but not usually in 300+ word sentences.

Proust is fun, when the humor or quirky observations strike, and the feeling, such as when the Grandmother dies, is also compelling. Not so, the endless receptions and dinner parties. Maybe they are so long to make them boring like in real life.

When I was a very young bride, my husband's office manager threw exceedingly boring Christmas parties, and we always went, and I tried to find creative reasons to cut out early. The guests were all stodgy middle-aged types and I was 22 for cryin' out loud. We were always told that after we left, "things really got going." I don't think so. Maybe Proust's parties are so long to convey the tediousness and the boredom.

SHOW, DON'T TELL. I get it!

Here is the link: http://readproust.blogspot.com/

The Wrong Neurons are crossing the synapses

2009-10-30T15:53:00.003-05:00

Everytime I set my fingers to the keyboard this week I do something stupid. I continue to spell Orhan Pamuk's name every which way but right. I tweeted about the wrong guest of honor (Evanovich, not Grafton) at the New England Crimebake, and I answer emails to the wrong people. Is there a screw-up pollen floating about?

Maybe I should just lay off for a few weeks until all the big stuff has come and gone? What fun would that be? But I wouldn't have to make these continual corrections and apologies, mea culpa-ing right and left. So uncool.

I doubt if Proust had these problems, but then he died younger than I am, and I seem to having Senior Days of late. Acting in haste, repenting in haste. No fun in that.

Sorry Sue. Sorry Orhan. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Yes, and I've burnt the pot again that it took 3 days to scour. A bit of inattention to the pears in port wine. The sauce carmelized and burnt before my very eyes, while I stirred the saurkraut. Kind of a yin and yang dinner with Kielbasa and kraut followed by pears poached in port wine. We're that kind of household.

Forever,

Odette

The Museum of Innocence

2009-10-30T15:46:00.005-05:00

Complimenting Orhan Pamuk's appearance at the Boston Festival of Books is this upcoming review (mentioning Panuk's close reading of Proust and Proust's influence on Pamuk) from The New York Review of Books.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23381

It would be interesting to write a paper about Proust and Pamuk, but I will leave that to a more scholarly person. Perhaps someone has already.

Wondering,

Odette

Why is Everybody Reading Proust?

2009-10-26T09:59:00.005-05:00

Well, Proust gets a lot of free PR. Proust and the Squid, How Proust Can Change Your Life--Proust's name in the title of a book is not uncommon.

How many undergraduates read Proust these days? That's when/where I learned about the Narrator. My god, I read parts of Jean Santeuil and all sorts of references. Poulet's Studies in Human Time and ??? I wish I still had the list. Wish I still had my paper. Hmmm. Maybe one more trek through the folders of olde college stuffe.

I doubt that anyone in my writing group has read Proust. Suspect a couple of them may not have even heard of him. But of course, unless you are writing long, long sentences, Proust isn't required for writers. These days, those sentences would be out of favor.

Saturday evening at the Boston Festival of Books, I listened to Orhan Pamuk's address, and tried to think when, except for Proust, I read anything the least bit "literary." Couldn't think of anything going back to The Corrections. That novel, while excellent, did not read as "literary"--think big words and long sentences.

Pamuk, whom I have not read, seemed literary. Maybe literariness is a European thing. Literary Americans? Faulkner was literary. Thomas Wolfe. My mind has gone blank. Who else? Ah, Henry James. Definitely James. The Golden Bowl. Very literary. Is literary a function of writing structure or of subject matter. What makes literary?

Proust is definitely "literary." Here is a link again to a new Proust reading group.

http://thecorklinedroom.wordpress.com/

And here's a link to an opinion about the cork-lined room. I notice the author does not have this blog in his sights. Oh well, no matter.

http://pykk.blogspot.com/2009/10/possessor-possesses-nothing.html

When I climb out from under 2009, I'll read Proust again. Practically salivating. Can't wait to get to the last book, The Past Recaptured, the reward for all that hard reading.

Onward

The Cork-Lined Room

2009-10-23T10:08:00.002-05:00

A cork-lined room would be a good thing. For the past week, we've had very somnolent yellow jackets(wasps) buzzing around the ceiling and other lights in our home office. They expired before they could sting anyone. Since the pests seemed to be increasing, we became concerned. An inspection of the exterior of the house revealed wasps coming and going thru the hole where the air conditioning enters the basement.

A call to the condo association brought the extermination 24 hours later. Ye Gods! The yellow jackets had a nest in the furnace room, an inaccessible nest, their own cork-lined room, and were coming into the office because that door is frequently ajar as the cats like to hang out in the furnace room when they need a bit of private time.

So now the room is sealed up until the fumes abate and the wasps are dead. Cats were banned from the office last night which they didn't like. Thisbe was horrified when the "workmen" appeared. She was just relaxing because the houseguests had finally departed. A cat likes her solitude, her own cork-lined room.

I congratulate myself for figuring out the riddle of the wasps, and that we got such fast action. We'll have to block the hole, of course. Always something.

Speaking of cork-lined rooms, a new Proust reading group has started.

http://thesecondpass.com/?p=3185

Check it out.

The Other Odette

Blogging Proust

2009-10-21T11:11:00.002-05:00

Houseguests and projects have prevented my reading and posting, alas! In the meantime, for you Proust addicts, and aren't we all, here are a couple of sites to check out.

Lydia Davis is a renowned and respected translator of Proust and a writer in her own right.

http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/content/emily-bobrow/lydia-davis-gained-translation

And Creme de Violette has a few words?
http://cremedeviolette.livejournal.com/3193.html

And Tom Raymond, on reading Proust:
http://tomraymondswriting.blogspot.com/2009/10/on-reading-proust.html

See! Everyone isn't too caught up in day-to-day stuff to read Proust.

The Other Odette

Slow Reading of Proust

2009-10-10T09:36:00.004-05:00

An almost-not-quite-deserted, peaceful place to read Proust, without distractions, without irritations. Maybe an out-of-the-way island. Good food, sun with a few rainy days, a beach, an umbrella, some interesting walks (to ponder what one has read), outdoor cafes for the sunny days, and indoor cafes for the rain. Mybe a haunting street musician. A few people to make up stories about. No shopping, no television, only an immersion in Proust and his milieu. How quickly could one finish the book?

http://harrietwaag.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-would-read-proust.html

Odette, the other one

Alas, Proust

2009-10-06T09:52:00.003-05:00

Somehow, I ended up with multiple projects and endeavors due in the September - November timeframe, and reading has taken a back seat. Poor old Proust. I just loved the beginning of Cities of the Plain, but haven't gotten very far. Such a relief from the Guermantes and their endless dinner parties and all the receptions.

Gourmet, alas, has folded. Very sad. My first and best Gazpacho recipe is from Gourmet 1964. Think about that. The founder, Earl McAusland, has a summer place in Nantucket before the big money moved in. The big noisy money. Nantucket was always a great place to dine, but had little in common with Balbec, except of course, there were always yachts and bicycles, and dunes, and artists. Gee, maybe Nantucket does have something in common with Balbec.

We subscribed to Gourmet until last year. When the economy tanked, it was time for us to scale down our travel, dining out and dining in food budgets, and I noticed that I seldom actually cooked any of the Gourmet recipes. We became Bon Appetit, and Cook's Illustrated folks. In Germany last winter, we ate at obscure country inns and bratwurst on the street in Thuringia. None better.

Tonight, for example, I'm making a ratatouille and Italian sausage pie with a cornmeal crust. Homey, frugal, healthy and ,we hope, tasty. With parsley, basil and thyme and even a tomato from the garden. Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary, and we were going to celebrate at Coriander in Sharon and discovered it had been sold and turned into an Indian restaurant. We got to Needham for Indian Food. Masala Art. So we're trekking to Providence to Al Forno where the food is always sublime and your waistline and wallet both take a hit.

The last time we were in Paris our big dining splurge was at the Pompidou Centre restaurant, and a fine meal it was. Would Proust approve? What would he think of all those pipes and escalators and the modern art? Proust was a man of his time and I think he would like it. Can you see his quiet, pleasant little smile? Sort of like a psychiatrist's.

Now Gourmet is gone. Before we downsized and moved, I had a twenty-year collection which I parsed for "keep" recipes. I also saved all the Thanksgiving and Christmas and barbecue issues, which actually had stuff you would cook. Or might. Holiday foods that Francois could produce. Does Proust ever mention holidays? Can't recall. Just the summer vacances. Interesting no? Inquiring minds . . .

I'm sorry I haven't read much of anything lately. Can't even keep up with the newspapers (also folding) and the magazines. Life is not what it once was. But then it never is.

Onward,

Odette

". . . reproaching Proust for a lack of car chases."

2009-09-19T09:31:00.003-05:00

Love it. Love it. Love it. Leave it to the Financial Times.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/42ef53aa-a3e2-11de-9fed-00144feabdc0.html

Reading Proust at the Supermarket?

2009-09-17T18:33:00.004-05:00

I see Marcel wandering about, swathed in his great coat and many scarves, totally taken with the amazing choices and total weirdness of the American supermarket. He is smiling, maybe even a bit jolly., not nonplused but rather interested. He is sniffing the coffee, and wondering why the tomatoes have no scent whatsoever. Is he processing an involuntary memory of Francoise's kitchen? Ah, the fragrant odors and the bustle.

http://geopolicraticus.wordpress.com/2009/03/14/your-friendly-neighborhood-supermarket/

The bustle at Trader Joe's is considerable. Would Proust drink "two-buck Chuck?" Who knows?

The other Odette

Involuntary Memory in Oregon

2009-09-16T10:56:00.004-05:00

I, too, find that I buy less and less during travels, and cherish photos and memories more than ever.

When my youngest son was learning (or should I say trying to learn) the French Horn, he practiced a piece called "Variations." His older brother opined that most of the variations were involuntary.

Is involunary memory like that? My Significant Other is writing his memoir of growing up during World War II and especially the days at the end of the war when the Russian army invaded their town and fighting broke out. As he writes and researches the history of the period, more and more memories return. Like going to an old boarded up well and discovering clear potable water. And now the memories come, bringing forth even more memories. It's an amazing experience, even to watch. And there is also the difference in what he remembers and what a younger sister recalls.

I found this blog which mentions memory in Proust, and thought you should read it, too.

http://geopolicraticus.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/unintended-memories/

It was tempting to call the post, Reading Proust in Oregon

The Other Odette

Remembrance of Crimes Past

2009-09-15T14:40:00.005-05:00

This blog received a citation as one of the 100 best blogs about mystery novels. While it is true that I write crime fiction and that I have another blog that frequently discusses writing and the writing life, Reading Proust in Foxborough is unrelated to mystery novels.

Nonetheless, not wishing to give offense, I put the little sticker at the bottom of the blog. Do you think the purveyor of best blogs believes Proust to be a mystery writer? Of course, in his way he is. There is a mystery at the heart of any novel. Are there crimes in the great work? Mostly the crimes careless people wreak upon one another, crimes of the heart, crimes of the ego. crimes of passion, if you will. What book does not contain those crimes?

Maybe someone thinks Foxborough is a prison, like Walpole, our neighboring town.

Remembrance of Crimes Past? I thought so.

Mystified. And a little pleased.

Odette, the other one

Life As Lived By Proust

2009-09-15T09:41:00.002-05:00

This blogger has a fascinating take on Marcel's relationship with women, and I think he's right. Consider the Duchess de Guermantes.

http://blog.guterman.com/2009/09/15/on-observing-vs-living-life/

Onward If Not Upward

2009-09-14T08:30:00.002-05:00

Last night at midnight, energized by the latest "Mad Men," and wanting to get to sleep, I picked up Proust.

I can tell that readerwise, Sodom and Gomorrah will be a lot more fun than The Guermantes Way.

Marcel is spying on Charlus and sees him flirting with the tailor Jupien. Marcel realizes that Charlus is gay and a new understanding and realizations cascade through his brain while he continues to watch the two, even sneaking through a passageway so he can overhear them. Bad Marcel! For this we waded through endless pages of boring receptions. Worth the wait!

Of course, at midnight, tired by a long week and the late hour, I only read a few pages. Proust is not an "I sat down at six and didn't stop reading until I closed the book" kind of thriller. No indeedy. One savours Proust. And that little sneak Marcel. What a revelation.

Onward.

The other Odette

OMG! Someone has actually SUMMARIZED Proust!

2009-09-09T13:20:00.002-05:00

http://bush-tetra.livejournal.com/2653.html

It was Walter Benjamin. Who knew? Someone must immediately notify the All England Summarize Proust Society.

Odette, feeling frisky

Reading Proust Practically Everywhere

2009-09-08T15:22:00.002-05:00

We must all have returned from our various "Balbecs" and are flexing literary muscles, unused after the summer beach reads.

Here are some fearless Proust readers with literary blogs:

http://www.litkicks.com/

http://pagesturned.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-books.html

Time to get going on volume 2. After all, I survived (barely) all those receptions and dinner parties at the Guermantes.

Paintings in Proust

2009-09-06T09:50:00.002-05:00

A blogger with interesting thoughts about painting in Proust. I often try to figure out who "Elstir" was. He had to be one of the painters contemporary to Proust, just as Saens-Saens was likely a stand in for Vintieul. I think I have found the "petite phrase" in one of the violin/piano concertos.

http://proustreader.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/paintings-in-proust/

It would be so nice to have time to pursue all these tracks, but daily responsibilities tie me down. Maybe take an Elstir/Vintieul week and just pursue the threads? Lovely.

I wonder if the blogger knows about the book, Paintings in Proust by Eric Karpeles"?

The other Odette

Reading Proust in Paris

2009-09-04T17:07:00.007-05:00

This blog is worth its weight in madelines if for no other reason that it helps me find interesting writing, people, other blogs, and one thing always leads to another. Serendipity, that' s what it is.

Here is a blogger reading Proust in Paris and even trying to write like Proust, a challenging experiment.

I would need a long piece of cord or string to find my way back to the subject of my sentence. How many parenthetical phrases can one string together? I noticed Proust's dialogue is stuck in the middle of the paragraph with no quote marks or any of those little grammatical tags that help the reader. You're on your own with Proust.

Read on down into the blog to find some fascinating discussions of writing, and also several beginnings of what has to become a wonderful novel. Yowza!

http://literarylab.blogspot.com/2009/09/lexperience.html

Sometimes it seems that all the bookstores are closing. In New York City there will be one less place to purchase Proust in the original French. So sad.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/longlived-french-bookstore-in-rockefeller-center-to-close/

Reading Proust on the Train

2009-09-01T09:13:00.004-05:00

Reading Proust on the train enabled a young woman to find a literary agent. No wonder I've had no luck in that regard. I read Proust in bed late at night.

I began volume two, but only read a page before drifting off. It will be another long slog until Time Regained, my absolute favorite of all Proust's work.

http://www.27east.com/story_detail.cfm?id=231144&town=Hampton%20Bays&n=Local%20author%20to%20read%20excerpts%20from%20latest%20novel%20at%20Sag%20Harbor%20bookstore

Maybe you should read Proust on the train.

Odeette

New England Reads Proust

2009-08-23T08:50:00.003-05:00

An alert reader sent information about a Proust reading group at the Boston Athenaeum (private library) and a group of women in Connecticut have formed their own Proust-reading group. This rocks! Is it a movement?

http://womenreadingproust.blogspot.com/2009/08/mon-dieu-someone-has-read-all-7-volumes.html

I took Volume II off the shelf. It looks mouse-chewed and terribly worn, and I notice there's a price of $2.00 on the inside cover. Obviously from college days. Scott Montcrieff translation and hard cover. Avanti!

The other Odette

A Respite from Proust

2009-08-20T16:17:00.004-05:00

Having finished (enfin) The Guermantes Way, I'm taking a break and finishing some other books languishing on my nightstand. One is Three Trapped Tigers, a cool book about Havana in the 50's right before Castro came to power. I'm almost through A Bright and Guilty Place, a non-fictional account of Los Angeles in the late 20's and early 30's. Corruption to the max.
Very interesting. I'm in the middle of Elmore Leonard's book of short stories, When the Women Come Out to Dance. Isn't that a great title.? Great stories, too. Anyone for baked possum?
I just finished Red Leaves, by Thomas Cook, a novel that will break your heart. I recall a few years ago when the novel was up for an Edgar Award.

Summer is the time for reading, although none of these books could be considered "beach reads." My novel is process now has 65,000 words and starts to look like a real book. I've been at it for a year. Had I been dedicated, I would have finished, but I'm also trying to find agents/publishers for three other novels, so that takes a toll of "free time," as well as all my writing groups and organizations.

It's a full life, Charlie. Who said that? No idea.

Let us imagine Marcel on the beach at Balbec, or in the dining room with his grandmother, or in town with the young girls in flower, or maybe even in Elstir's studio. Long ago, I recall resort hotels like the one in Balbec. One's bottle of wine and bottle of water on the table from previous meals, even one's napkin. Personally, I like a fresh napkin rather often. The same waiter, and pretty soon he knows one's likes and dislikes. Has that way of life vanished? I rather think so.

Everything very proper and even stylized. Last Year at Marienbad and all that jazz. We saw Mr Hulot's Holiday, which ages so well and had that same seaside flavor. I liked it ever so much, even the umpteenth time.

Onward,

Odette

At Long Last, Fini

2009-08-12T09:13:00.004-05:00

I did it! Last night during the rain delay of the Red Sox game against Detroit, I finished The Guermantes Way, finally arriving at the scene where a dying Swann appears and the Guermantes pooh-pooh his problems and fixate on their evening plans. The Duchess, Oriane, runs back inside for the red shoes that will match her dress. The Duc, Basin, is such an upper class twit, and the entire scene is priceless, even worth the endless slog of hundreds of pages through the boring parties and receptions and upper class snobbery.

Proust really knows how to end a scene. I loved it. Now onward to the second volume. I have an ancient (ancien) copy in two volumes. It took me forever to get through the Guermantes. I wavered. I procrastinated. I read two pages per week. I became a Proust slacker. No more.

Of course, posting to the blog has been difficult with so little progress through the great novel.

August 11 is the great turnaround. Enfin!

Delirious with accomplishment,

Odette

Proust would approve

2009-08-02T12:36:00.004-05:00

I am so close to the end of the Guermantes book, that I can almost taste it, smell it, definitely feel it. This week for sure I will finish. So long a slog. I could have walked across Spain in the time it has taken to read it. In the summer. Taking two seasons.

Speaking of smelled it, here is the story of a blogger who lost and regained her sense of smell. And the first smell that came back was . . . . but I'll let her tell her Proustian tale of smell regained. Thanks to an alert reader for the link

http://mollysmadeleine.blogspot.com/2005/12/unexpected-scent-of-chocolate.html

Thanks to one of my readers for the alert.

We were in Nantucket this week, an island I have visited since my youngest was in diapers. The island has changed and not changed, but the sunlight, the fog, the sweet smell of privet will always remind me where I am. The ferry coming back encountered "ocean swells," but not rough enough for a "Nantucket sleight ride." Google this phrase. It is Melvillian.

It's not at all like Balbec, but there are girls on bicycles and girls walking and money in the air and old boarding houses and restaurants and even artists who have been there since God was a boy. I think that in the old days, Proust would have felt at home there. No grand hotels, but a few classy resorts. Not a European experience, and not even an American experience, but the quintessential New England experience.

The other Odette

A Proustian Summer

2009-07-18T09:18:00.003-05:00

No, alas, we aren't traveling to Balbec or wherever. Actually, I always wanted to go to Deauville, and now of course, on to San Sebastian in Spain and the Gehry Guggenheim.

Instead, we are in "staycation" mode, visiting Plymouth and the Plantation and the Mayflower, and the Museum of Science in Boston, making day trips. Blue Man Group is also on the agenda. What do you think Proust would say about Blue Man Group.? Sure ain't the Vinteiul Sontata in Mme. Verdurin's drawing room.

No young girls in flower, although the waitresses at the Plymouth seafood restaurant Cabbyshack were in the same mold, if you move ahead 90 years. Pretty and smiling and athletic-looking. I could see them on their bicycles cycling along the shore.

I tried YET AGAIN to get through the last pages of the Guermantes Way and fell asleep after two pages. This is ridiculous. I'll have to spend an afternoon and not rely on bedtime reading.

Of course Nantucket is a Proustian place, and although it has changed from the ramshackle town I first visited when I was younger, (eeek!), the sunlight and the smell of the hedges and the walk to the beach, even Main Street still hold their familiar sights and patterns. The hedge fund managers and the glitz are welcome to go away, but keep the perfumed hedges. A little seediness is sometimes a good thing. Galveston was always best when it was seedy.

Does anyone take Proust for a beach read? I wouldn't think so. Let me know if YOU do this.

Today is Thisbe's birthday. She has a new mouse and an extra ration of catnip. Wish her nine more years of the wonderful life of a cat in this cat-catering household.

The other Odette

Serendity

2009-07-11T15:47:00.003-05:00

My old, long down web site was called "Serendipity," probably because as I surfed the web, I found many serendiptious things. Today, browsing through my "favorite" blogs, none of which I read daily, I found this interesting exchange of letters with a big mention of Proust, so go ye forth and click:

http://raymondfederman.blogspot.com/2007/12/conversation-with-miloi.html

Interesting comments about diaries and journals. I have not kept a dairy since 4th grade, and have always envied fellow writers who keep journals. Sometimes, but not often, I keep a travel journal, if the destination is particularly fascinating.

More Birthday Greetings

2009-07-11T12:08:00.004-05:00

I just took a gander at a number of blogs purporting to be Proust blogs. Some are abandonned, others have rien to do with Proust, some are in Russian/German. It's a difficult business sorting through "stuff" on the Net. I picked up a hideous virus once, when I unwitting went to a Russian site to look up some song lyrics. Ya can't ever be too careful.

That being said, here's another birthday blog from yesterday.
http://marcelproust.blogspot.com/search/label/proust

The cherry caflouti made 8 servings, and 2 are still left. Do I hear it calling my name? Seems like they might have had a caflouti or two at Aunt Leonie's house, don't you think?

I have just GOT to finish The Guermantes Way. Just do it.

Here is a link (you'll have to scroll down) about Proust confronting (or not) his Jewish blood.
http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/2009/07/this-day-july-10-in-jewish-history.html

The other Odette

Happy Birthday Marcel, Wherever You Are

2009-07-10T09:45:00.002-05:00

Maybe in Pere LaChaise, maybe somewhere else. And what a beautiful day (en fin) we have in Foxborough, MA to celebrate the occasion.

I'm making spare ribs on the grill, baked beans, corn on the cob and we'll also enjoy yesterday's cherry caflouti (hey, ya gotta have something French).

I don't know if Francois ever made a caflouti during cherry season. Maybe the family was too la-di-dah. Dunno. We are NOT too la-di-dah.

Happy Birthday, Marcel. Ah to be in the South of France today, perhaps in the hills above Nice or Cannes, perhaps in Normandy or where Proust and his grandmother summered, Balbec. Can't you just smell the briny breeze and see the young girls in flower.

Ahhhhh.

The other Odette

Summarizing Proust

2009-07-08T09:13:00.004-05:00

July is looking good for finding literate Proust blogs. The world has not yet fled to the South of France, the Mediterrean isles, the Hamptons or onto a yacht on Long Island Sound.

What? Quel dommage! You're not going to any of those places? Helas!

When our cat took ill, we had one of those maligned "staycations" with local museums and restaurants benefitting from Chez Odette. Kitty is fine now.

The grad student blogger with a link below has actually Summarized Proust, but not of course, in 15 seconds, that can't be done. Or can it?

http://gradstudentmadness.blogspot.com/2009/07/book-notes-guermantes-way-marcel-proust.html

Could it happen on Twitter in 142 characters? Want to try?
Odette is feeling very geeky having managed to have her "tweets" show up on Facebook.

Summer Proust Blogging

2009-07-07T09:19:00.004-05:00

Lately, I haven't found many Proust blogs worth reporting on, but here is a young blogger who reads and quotes Proust:

http://tastymorselsoflife.blogspot.com/2009/07/places-that-we-have-known-people-we.html

For a wonderful Proust essay read Travel in a Garden (link below). In Foxborough as in the rest of New England, gardens are drying out after the June deluges, unremitting and omnipresent. New England looks like England with so much greenery.

http://travelinagarden.blogspot.com/2009/07/du-cote-de-chez-swann-combray-marcel.html

Cheers!

Odette, whose Proust reading has again, alas, fallen on evil days.