Remembrance of Things Past - Within a Budding Grove (Marcel Proust, 1919)

(553 pages)

Continuing my leisurely re-read of Remembrance of Things Past (Volume 1 re-read mentioned here; original discussion here and here).  

Narrator has reached adolescence in this volume; lots of time at Balbec.

Thinking about the discussions about how we observe things and take them into memory, and what happens once in memory.

In my mid-60s - there's no doubt now that most of my life is over - all that remains of all those earlier years is what I've retained in memory.  So I think about how that works differently, though still not very effectively.

Sometimes I hear folks say that it's a mistake to spend time "living in the past" - I think it's a mistake not to.  (I suppose it can be done to the diminution of enjoyment of the present, but that would be a different problem.)

I plan to keep sifting through these books over the coming years.  Looking forward to Volume 3 though not sure how quickly I'll be taking it up.