So, I once had a boyfriend who insisted that if you don't like the first ten minutes of a film, then the film is rubbish and you needn't bother with the rest of it. I saw the first ten minutes of many movies while this gentleman and I were together, movies that may have gotten better. I thought of this while I was reading pages 50-100 of Swann's Way. As I've mentioned before, this is my third time attempting to read this book. I imagine that part of the reason why I put it down the previous two times and didn't pick it back up included my just not being all that interested. I'm happy to say something that you probably already know: books are not movies. They can get better.
The narrator really starts getting into the narration of his childhood in these fifty pages. The narrative swims back to him, starting with a description of his Aunt who never leaves her rooms, hardly eats anything and never sleeps (so she says). She has to remind herself that she has not slept, and she catches herself to avoid saying things like, "what woke me," and "I dreamed that." I loved this observation about the Aunt because I often find the difference between what has happened and how we remember it in order for the happening to fit into how we see ourselves as being interesting.
Part of his Aunt's life, upstairs in her rooms, is devoted to watching people as they go by on the street from the window and hearing the gossip about everyone from her maid Francoise and her few visitors. She watches from the window with such regularity that she knows every dog and every face that passes the window. When she doesn't watch, she sends Francoise to the grocer to buy some salt or something they must be running low on so that she'll have a reason to go investigate and bring back the news.
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