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:

“Marcel becomes obsessed with the Duchesse de Guermantes, who does not reciprocate his interest. With unmatched powers of observation, the author vividly describes the struggles for political, social and sexual supremacy played out beneath a veneer of elegant manners.” (Source: Goodreads)

Before anything else, happy Friday everyone! That’s another workweek in the books. This means we are inching ever closer to the conclusion of the year. In a couple of weeks, we will be welcoming 2024. Signs of Christmas are everywhere. Towering Christmas trees are hogging spaces in building lobbies; the Philippines has a long Christmas tradition. Christmas music permeated the atmosphere as early as September. Now that Christmas is closer, every nook and cranny of the metropolis is propped with Christmas lights. As the year approaches its close, I hope that the remaining days of 2023 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.

I am also hoping that everyone is ending their workweek on a high note. I hope everyone is diving into the weekend without that many worries. I hope that everyone is hopping into the weekend with carefree. It might have been challenging but I hope your workweek went smoothly and that you were able to accomplish all your tasks for the week. But if it went awry, I hope the weekend will provide a respite. I hope you will be able to find the time to rest and relax during the weekend. I hope everyone will spend the weekend with their loved ones. I hope you spend it pursuing 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.

Time will take its natural course. Despite this, we are still left with enough time this year to achieve things that we want to achieve, to complete the goals we set earlier this year, or to reverse a series of misfortune and missed opportunities. Reading-wise, I still have a lot of goals I want to achieve. Sure, I have – surprisingly – completed reading over 100 books for the second consecutive year. However, I still have a lot of books on my reading challenges. This is because of my tendency to meander. Before it was too late, I shifted my focus to books on these aforementioned reading challenges. Among these books is Marcel Proust’s The Guermantes Way, the book I am featuring in this week’s book blogging closer, First Impression Friday. The book is one of the last five books in my 2023 Beat the Backlist Challenge that I have yet to read and is also a part of my foray into European literature.

The Guermantes Way is the third volume of the French writer’s magnum opus, Remembrance of Things Past/In Search of Lost Time. It was originally published as Le Côté de Guermantes in two parts in 1920 and 1921. Like the first six volumes of the great novel, it was translated into English by Scotsman C. K. Scott Moncrieff. As some of you would know, I originally purchased two volumes of the novel way back in 2015 thinking they were standalone books. But lo and behold, they were part of the aforementioned epic. As such, I held back from reading the book, hoping to complete all seven books first before reading them. In early 2020, prior to the pandemic, I was able to obtain four more volumes, prompting me to start reading the books in 2022. To sustain the momentum I gained, I made the next two volumes part of my 2023 Beat the Backlist Challenge; Within a Budding Grove was featured in last week’s First Impression Friday update.

Following the unnamed narrator’s romantic and sexual awakening- it is widely accepted amongst literary pundits that he is the author’s alter ego – in the second volume, the readers meet him again but now with a new prospect. At the start of The Guermantes Way, the narrator’s family moved to an apartment connected with the titular Guermantes residence. Like with the Swanns of the first two volumes, the Narrator found himself enamored by the family and their social circle. Duchesse de Guermantes, in particular, immediately caught his fancy. However, Mme. de Guermantes refused to acknowledge the narrator and his fondness for her, even going as far as brushing off his clumsy attempts to get to know her.

In order to make headway into Mme. de Guermantes’ steely reserve, the narrator visited her nephew Robert de Saint-Loup at the barracks in Doncières and enlisted his assistance. At the base, he got acquainted with Saint-Loup’s fellow officers. Over dinner, they discussed a plethora of subjects, the most prominent of which was the Dreyfus Affair. It would be repeated over the course of the novel which makes me think further about what the affair entails for the rest of the novel. An emergency made the narrator leave the barracks abruptly. Returning to his home, his advances were still ignored by the adamant Mme. de Guermantes. This facet of the book resonated with tangents in the second volume.

Of note is the growing presence of Saint-Loup in the narrator’s life. He dropped for a visit during an official leave from the military base. During this visit, he became more enamored with Rachel, his actress mistress. She was a Jewish prostitute; “tart” was a word used to refer to her both by the narrator and her friends. The friendship between the narrator and Robert, however, is superficial, one that was borne out of a personal convenience. Even the narrator acknowledged this lack of connection between the two of them. However, it does seem like Robert is going to be a key character in the succeeding volumes of the novel.

As the story moves forward, I am curious about what happens between the narrator and Mme. de Guermantes. Will they get acquainted? If yes, how will their relationship pan out? Apart from the narrator’s romantic endeavors, we also read about his lack of motivation for his writing. He also takes us into the world of French society, another element that echoed from the first two volumes. Memory and the dynamics of friendship again play a crucial role in the story. Pared down, it seems that The Guermantes Way still forms part of the narrator’s coming-of-age, a period of radical changes that will alter and worse, impair his views and perspectives of the world. Nevertheless, these are stepping stones for what awaits him in the succeeding volumes.

I am nearly halfway through the book. Again, I have to slow down my reading pace and let myself be absorbed by the prose. As always, it is lush, descriptive, and beautiful. However, it is noticeable how the tone is slowly shifting. I can’t wait to see how the narrator’s newest ventures will develop and how they will impact him as an individual. 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!