First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

“First published in 1919, Within a Budding Grove was awarded the Prix Goncourt, bringing the author immediate fame. In this second volume of Remembrance of Things Past, the narrator turns from the childhood reminiscences of Swann’s Way to memories of his adolescence. Having gradually become indifferent to Swann’s daughter Gilberte, the narrator visits the seaside resort of Balbec with his grandmother and meets a new object of attention—Albertine, “a girl with brilliant, laughing eyes and plump, matt cheeks.” (Source: Goodreads)

Happy Friday everyone! The workweek is over! I hope everyone is ending their workweek on a high note and full of verge. I hope that everyone is hopping into the weekend with carefree. I hope your work week went smoothly and that you were able to accomplish all your tasks for the week. Otherwise, I hope the weekend, brief as it may be will provide a respite from your corporate responsibilities. I hope you will be able to find the time to rest and relax during the weekend. I hope you get to rejuvenate your manna in preparation for yet another week at the office. I hope you get to spend the weekend with the people you love and pursue the things you are passionate about. For those who are caught in the crossfire in Israel and Palestine, my prayers are with all of you. It is my fervent wish that the two states will find a peaceful resolution to their decades-old conflict.

Woah. Time does fly fast. A third of November is already gone. This means that we are inching ever closer to the inevitable end of 2023 and the start of a new year. But we must get through the holiday season first. Christmas music permeates the atmosphere. All over the city, Christmas lights are twinkling. The signs are there: Christmas season is just around the corner. As the year approaches its close, I hope the rest of the year will be kind to everyone. I hope you get repaid for the hard work you poured in during the year. I pray that it will be overflowing with blessings and positive news. As always, I hope everyone will be healthy during the rest of the year and in the coming year.

While time will take its natural course, there is still enough time left this year to achieve things that we want to achieve, to complete the goals we set earlier this year. Personally, I still have a lot of goals I want to achieve, especially where reading is concerned. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of books on my reading challenges, among them is Marcel Proust’s Within A Budding Grove, the book I am featuring in this week’s book blogging closer, First Impression Friday. The book is one of the last seven books in my 2023 Beat the Backlist Challenge that I have yet to read. The book is also a part of my foray into European literature.

Within A Budding Grove was originally published in 1919 as À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. It was originally scheduled to be published in 1914 but its publication was delayed by the First World War. It is the second volume in the French writer’s magnum opus, Remembrance of Things Past/In Search of Lost Time. The original English translation carried the title In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower. As some of you would know, I originally purchased two volumes of the novel way back in 2015 but I pushed back reading the book when I learned there were seven volumes comprising the novel. I read the first volume last year when I obtained six of the seven volumes. So as not to lose momentum, I made the second and third volumes part of my 2023 Beat the Backlist Challenge.

In the second volume of the literary classic, the readers are again introduced to the introspective but anonymous main character-cum-narrator. It is generally accepted by literary pundits that the main character is the writer himself. Swann’s Way, the first volume in the septet, established the atmosphere of the novel and laid out its landscape. It also introduced the readers to the novel’s main characters. The first volume was also examined through the lenses of childhood. Within A Budding Grove meanwhile takes a more mature perspective. We join the main narrator’s journey through life, particularly his growing social and romantic awareness.

The object of the narrator’s growing fascination was Gilberte Swann, the daughter of Odette de Crécy and Charles Swann. His growing fondness for Gilberte already started to sprout in the latter parts of the first volume. In the first part of the second volume, the narrator’s feelings for Gilberte take a firmer shape. However, her parents were not too fond of the narrator. As fate would have it, the two’s paths diverged. What ensued was the narrator’s relationships with different women. The second part of the novel covers his travel to the seaside town of Balbec with his grandmother and Françoise, the Narrator’s faithful, stubborn maid.

In Balbec, the narrator also befriended members of the Guermantes aristocrat, Robert de Saint-Loup, and of the painter Elstir who we first meet as a foolish young man belonging to Madame Verdurin’s “little clan” in Swann’s Way. Friendship, including the oft-called friendship with benefits, was the leitmotif of the novel. I am nearly done with the book, with just a couple of pages more. As always, it took me time to find my footing in the story. Most of the story – well, the novel had rather a thin plot – was preoccupied with the narrator’s thoughts and musings. While it seems tedious, it is in this facet that I am most fascinated with Proust’s writing and language. His writing flows. It is simply marvelous that I have to drink it all in. Even the descriptions of the view of the sea from his room were beautiful.

Beyond the dynamics of friendships, recurring themes were memory and coming-of-age. Memory, I realized, is among the threads that connect the seven volumes together, hence, its title. I can’t wait to finish the book so that I can resume with the third volume. There is really just something about Proust’s writing that reels me in. How about you fellow reader? What book or books are you taking with you for the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy them. Again, happy weekend everyone!