In which I confess that I have failed you, dear readers, not to mention myself and Proust and a woman in Massachusetts.
I have not finished Swann's Way. (hangs head in shame)
I have plenty of excuses, which I offer you in the sentence length of Marcel Proust:
My agent wants revisions on my young adult novel absolutely positively AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, but certainly before the end of the month, so I have to write 22 scenes by July 30, which is also the day we close on our new house, the purchase of which has required large quantities of time trying to convince the bank/sellers to allow us to close using Monopoly money and the barter system, particularly since we blew much cash this weekend when The Mighty Thor wifenapped me to Chicago to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary, where I spent time I should have been spending reading Proust gazing at Lake Michigan reminiscing and thinking about landscape and literature and how I should be reading, but how I am so enjoying the Proust, and what I enjoy most is how it is different from other books in that it is truly about the process of reading it, of sinking into it and relaxing and savoring it, and how I would really be doing it a disservice to read it as fast as I can just so I can say today that I have finished it, especially when I know what an understanding, forgiving, wise, and thoughtful** audience you all are, the kind of readers who would never kick a desperate superhero when she's down, who will read this and smile benevolently and comment, "Oh, yes, Jacqui, we understand and we love you anyway."*
Right? (smiles her cutest smile and bats eyelashes)
* Not to mention beautiful and smart.
** Especially after I promise to finish and synopsisize the Proust by the time the 15 weeks are up, while also keeping up on all my other assignments.
Monday, July 14, 2008
In Search of Lost Time: the Jacqui's Room Notes
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
Jacqui,
I so enjoy your blog. It's clever and informative. Hope you had a great anniversary.
Now get to work. You should be WORKING. REVISING.
P.S. I never want to read a "classic again." Once was enough. Right now I'm deep into my "Summer smut." Sharon
No reading -- except your YA manuscript. You can read when you're tired; use your good hours for revision. (This was said in my best high school English teacher voice, btw)
Sharon: thanks! Means a lot from someone who makes me giggle like you.
Anne: Yes ma'am. Wrote a chapter today, I promise.
Jacqui, I agree with Anne, and I hope your revisions are going well.
I'm almost done with Jane Eyre, so that'll be my book due tomorrow. For this quite belated post, I read The Great Gatsby and found it interesting after the first chapter or so; It seemed to start really slow. It was full of betrayal and unfaithfulness - not my usual interests in reading and not a book that I would pick up again, but the writing was well done.
Kristi: "It was full of betrayal and unfaithfulness."
This is so true. I had the same problem of finding the characters unlikeable, so that no matter how beautiful the language, how well-written, how much of a classic it is, I just couldn't LOVE it.
Post a Comment