Literary memoirs are my favourite: I am halfway through Laure Murat's essay on Proust's In Search of Lost Time, which she realised when she read it aged 20, described her milieu (the French aristocracy), was partly based on members of her family, & is as relevant now as it was then. She walks us through the parallels & is pitiless about their flaws. She was rejected when she came out as lesbian & feels a kinship with Proust, who was gay.
#LGBTQ
I finally made it to Pere Lachaise today, and Proust was my #1 dead person I had to visit. The map I found online turned out to be wildly unspecific (right quadrant, wrong position for EVERYONE), but I ran into a nice lady who offered me help and steered me right to him.
Alas, I never did find Sarah Bernhardt, but I also said hi to Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison. The latter is so rowdy they‘ve got metal event barriers around him.
Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
#findingjoy
#14639769
so-soI‘ve always been intimidated by Proust and was thrilled to read this one with a few others. Proust has a meandering way of exploring the world around him. He‘s not rushed and his sentences are long and indulgent. That can feel exhausting at times, but then you come across a line so beautiful and achingly relatable that it stops you in your tracks. I‘m not ready to tackle the rest of the series, but maybe one book a year would be the right speed.
2024 wrap up:
41 books read
24 fiction
17 non-fiction
Favorites: More Work for Mother, Mother Tongue, Poverty by America, The Best of Everything
Finally managed to find a pretty enough edition of In Search of Lost Time. Definitely going to be one of my 2025 reading projects 🥰
#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude
This was one of my favourite '80s albums (1984), the only LP by Swans Way which spawned one Top 20 single, "Soul Train", so a definitive one-hit wonder, but brilliantly so. Mixing jazz, orchestral and baroque pop, it's Ultra Cool! Reconnecting with it over the past week I think it still really stands up as a great record. Definitely back on my play rotation.
You Tube album link in comments ?
