January Book Club - Swann’s Way

We tackled Marcel Proust’s “Swann’s Way,” and the nine of us who met on Wednesday, January 19th were glad we did. When you accept that you have to read in a different way, slowly, giving in to page after page of his complex, endless sentences, with layers of imagery and detail, you are rewarded by exquisite descriptions and perceptive psychological characterizations. Plot, not so much, which explains why most of us found it wearing to read. Those who had read the graphic novel found it helpful in presenting what plot there is, but missed the full impact of Proust’s extraordinary language.