Some Books are Dumber Than Others
So I finally gave up on The Captive. I couldn’t take any more and gave the last 30 pages or so only the most cursory skimming. Even that was exhausting and, frankly, kind of degrading. I would say that of the many books that I’ve read that are counted amongst literature’s shining lights, this is the worst. By a wide margin.
Presumably The Fugitive will be an improvement if for no other reason that there needs to be something new for Marcel to complain about without Albertine. Still, I think I’m going to take a little break to avoid accidentally counting my lingering resentments against the new volume.