Within a Budding Grove: David: 03/05/10

I'm now up to page 450 in Within a Budding Grove. The protagonist is feeling more at home now in his grandmother's village. There are two new men in his life: Robert and Bloch.

Robert seems to have taken the protagonist's mind off girls. The protagonist spends about 15 of the 30 pages describing just how perfect, refined and gorgeous Robert is. He's the next best thing to a sparkly vampire.

In fact I thought about putting Edward on the right. I also thought of putting Collin Firth as Mr. Darcy over there. In the end, though, I decided on Donatello's David.

Why not Michelangelo's David? Not pretty enough; he's more appropriate for the other friend mentioned in this section: Bloch. Bloch is also a member of the nobility but he's the dumb jock friend. He says what comes into his mind without thinking about it. He cracks dumb jokes. He mocks people. He's overly full of himself. I'm not saying that Michelangelo's David represents all of Bloch's undesirable qualities; just that if the two statues were in a room together being cast for parts in this section, that's how I'd cast them.

See you back next week for my thoughts on pages 451-80.

Swann's Way posts:

Lisa's First Word, Baby Mine, I Sing the Body Electric, The Lady in Pink, Bleeding Gums Murphy, Caturday, Cherry Blossoms, Marge Simpson, Liana Telfer, Bender in Love, Margaret Dumont, Hyacinth Bucket, Rose, Mildred Krebs, Pepé Le Pew, Jack Harness, Cordelia Chase, Saffron, Thomas O'Malley.

Within a Budding Grove posts:

Nanowrimo, Cheers, Robert Langdon, Kif and Amy, Dead Weight, Clark Kent, Lex Luthor, Paris is a Lonely Town, And Then There's Maude, A Cafe Terrace at Night, North by Northwest, Top Hat, Chez Deetz, Ah, My Goddess!, David, Auntie Mame, Brunhilde Esterhazy, Gusteau's, Shell Beach.

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