IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME VOLUME I: SWANN'S WAY by MARCEL PROUST

"The reality that I had known no longer existed. The places we have known do not belong only to the world of space on which we map them for our own convenience. They were only a thin slice, held between the contiguous impressions that composed our life at that time; the memory of a particular image is but regret for a particular moment; and houses, roads, avenues are as fugitive, alas, as the years."

And with these lines concluded the first volume of the approximate 3000 paged novel. If I were to explain what this novel is about, I'd either fail to, or my explanation wouldn't be enough, since this cannot be explained but only understood by your own perspective. Hence I would not try to do so.

I am clueless upon where to begin and how exactly to evaluate. I finished the first volume just now and I sort of feel quite snobbish or perhaps that was my crude reflection upon a few characters from this novel.

Should I explain the narrator's longing to be kissed by her mother goodnight every single night? or how various kinds of sensations and memories kick in with just a sip of tea along with a Madeleine, which as taken again and again, fades away slowly and loses the impact, the originality?

Or perhaps should we talk about Charles Swann and his jealous and over passionate love towards a what's known famously and scandalously as a "kept woman" or mistress?

How clever, what a musician Proust is! The narrator narrates a story of a jealous and engulfing love of M. Swann and Odette de Crécy and with which the narrator lays the fundamental base for his own love story towards M. Swann's daughter, Gilberte.

Proust very picturesquely and deliciously portrays the Parisian society and its scandals.

"To love someone, is to cease loving everything else."

Swann's love towards Odette was like a candle which would one day exhaust itself, burn itself out and Swann, this fellow was burning too high. There was no point in loving a woman who doesn't wants to be loved but yet pretends to be capable of loving and being loved. She in my opinion is what represents the social civility and prudence of the people back then in French societies. She comes from a sad background no doubt and that lays a fundamental outline in her character, but still Odette was a selfish being and Swann was a fool. He was helplessly in love with her.

The vivid descriptions that Proust gives throughout the novel is unfathomable and cunningly brilliant. He explains every fleeting moment with such passion that you can't help live it, not just read.

And slowly the story drifts towards the narrator who now finds himself, just like Swann, helplessly in love with Swann's daughter, Gilberte, who at times felt like was the personification of Odette herself (don't wanna spoil anymore).

This wasn't a very easy read but once you get in there is no stopping, it pulls you in and you just got to submit.

In this volume, Proust introduces the themes such as time, love, places and people which will be further delved into in the upcoming volumes.

This book isn't everyone's cup of tea, and even if it is, prepare your Madeleine and enjoy your Proustian moment!

Thanks for reading!