How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton

With an introduction by comedian and novelist David Baddiel A novel in seven volumes, Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is considered a major literary work of the twentieth century. And even more crucially, one that you should have read by now. However, as one of its most distinguishing features is its staggering length, many of us feel intimidated and perhaps, even, fatigued at the thought of diving in. Alain de Botton’s hilarious and unexpected Proustian manual, is then, the perfect antidote to this problem. In How Proust Can Change Your Life, de Botton masterfully distils what Proust says about friendship, reading, being alive and taking your time, and mixes it with his own, no less nourishing commentary. As de Botton rereads Proust for our collective benefit, we see the continued relevance of his work and the rich and varied insights he can offer us, from how to reinvigorate your relationship to being a good host. This is Proust as you’ve never seen him before. He may even change your life.

Very much looking forward to starting Proust now, thanks in part to this excellent book. Well worth reading even if you never intend to actually read Proust.

If you have considered reading this book, you are probably aware of who Proust is, but I honestly knew little about him before reading this book. I've been on a French author reading kick for, oh, five months or so, and I've had this book in my TBR for quite some time, so this was a must-read for me.

The question is, then, How? And, importantly, Can He?

The answers read like a how-to-be-happier self-help guide, but this book is not of that genre; this book is actually a book of literary criticism, oddly. Reading Proust can change your life by teaching you to focus on slowing down, relishing, thinking, reading thoughtfully, and your senses.

That's the How. Now for the Can He.

I say yes. Of course I do. I am a librarian, for goodness sake. Of course Proust can change your life. I'm of the opinion that all books can and do.

This should have ideally been a podcast rather than a book. In ‘98 it was not an option to explore different premises where digests were the main source of time pass read. In today's context, this would not interest common readers like me, but given the pandemic as a constraint, any second-hand book can deliberately provide some ancient knowledge that a millennial may not inculcate. Mostly I was eager to learn what Marcel Proust had to say after page 48 than Botton, sarcasm which the narrator had to impart to the audience did not work on me as I was not very keen to read this book. Highly recommended for people who really know about Proust, because I was not aware who he was until I got a parcel of books from a second-hand eCommerce website.