Nah! Not after you read this lovely essay by Marcelle Clements on how to do it. Many thanks to Virginia for unearthing this inspiring gem at Oprah's. It begins:
"Some readers are lucky; they fall in love with Proust on page one and enter a sort of rapture that transports them through all six volumes of In Search of Lost Time. Others struggle, resist, quit in a huff. My guess is that many readers are alternately smitten and outraged by Proust's prose style, especially in the opening pages, when we are in the dark—or rather, in a room where the drapes are drawn—and the only thing we can figure out with any certitude is that the narrator is unable to get to sleep and that this reminds him of many other sleepless nights...."
The essay continues here, on Oprah's website. Enjoy. And thank you again, VA!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But wait! There's more! Here's the late, great Russell Baker making a case that reading Proust is like climbing Mount Everest....(no way)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's someone else (LanguageHat) who finished reading it.
