Recently bodied this. Old big French novel. Technically about the mining strikes in northern France in 1866, and definitely about that, but also just about life during that time. Scrapping in the mines. Living in close quarters, turning up in the village with the other workers. The implied stuff Zola looks at in terms of family structure, mating rules, social life. It moves like novels of that time, like the Russians, say, in how it roams omnisciently in that quintessentially 19th century way. But something about how he starts it, with the protagonist pulling up to a new town, homeless and hungry, and seeing him gradually integrate into the mining community… The intimacy of living in such close quarters… Idk, it’s counterintuitively spicy, I recommend it, it slaps.
I think about this autobiography more times than I can count. It’s not just a coming of age story about queerness but a look into the not-so-glamorous side of French society. The working class Northern France area is largely ignored and this was a portrait into the types of people who live there too.
I'm ngl I've forgotten many parts of the story, I dozed off in others, and it was difficult to understand but I still really enjoyed the experience of reading Swann's Way. Now that we're in the middle of summer I'm remembering this book because that's the season where it takes place. I long for my summers to be as languid as I felt it was in the book, where I can just lounge around outside, take strolls, and be curious about strangers. Speaking of taking strolls, that part of the book where Marcel takes evening walks with his family felt startingly personal because I do the same every single dayyy. When I graduate I'm going to miss all these mundane routines with family and current life in general. Reading Swann's Way is comforting for me and I wish transported into that world. I'm definitely going to re-read it and I also have the other books to slowly get through. If anyone has any similar books to recommend please lmk!!