Madeline

Over the years I've tried to badger all my friends into reading my all-time super-slice Peter Leroy, including HERE; after a decade and a half I have had zero success at getting anyone to read the book...until today, with BayonneMike throwing me, and I quote, a "pity read." :)

Thanks BM!

In most posts on the book I've mentioned Proust's influence on the author; he himself is unrelenting in his praise of Proust's style and how it shaped his own writing. But I just realized that Peter Leroy is dedicated to the author's wife, who is named Madeline (whom I met when the author came to my college.) And having finally read Swann's Way, I discovered that the single defining "this is Proust" moment comes as the narrator is tasting a madeline cookie. Wtf? Bit of a strange coincidence, n'est-pas? Be like me marrying some chick named Imjustaregulargirlatamidwesterncollegewhoneverdreamedshedbewritingintoamagazinewithastorylikethis, no?