This book is “Proust for lazy people” – it’s part of a book that’s part of “À la recherche du temps perdu”, but after reading it you can still say that you read Proust. ;)

It tells Swann and Odette’s love story. Swann was apparently a friend of Proust’s grandfather, but he still gets an entire 250 dedicated to him in Proust’s autobiographical works, go figure. As I read it in a separate book, the disgression from what I guess is the main story didn’t disturb me so much. The story in itself is pretty good, it’s interesting to see how Swann goes down the path of love for this woman who didn’t met his fancy at first. The analysis of love made by Proust seems to me pretty accurate.

The problem I have with this book is the characters, they really annoyed me. All of them! So I found it rather hard to feel sorry for Swann or to be really interested in what happened to Odette. The other thing about this book is that it’s really not a summer book. It’s a book you’re supposed to take time reading, to get all the subtileties of Proust’s style, but I only read it on the bus while going back and forth to work, so it lessened the whole “Proust experience” a bit. I now know how to read the entire work – in winter near the fire with nothing else to think of, and them maybe I’ll like it better!