I’m a sucker for any book that deals with the writer’s fascination with another writer, and I imagine that’s why I picked up Proust’s Overcoat in 2015. It was published in Italian in 2008, and translated into English by Eric Karpeles in 2010, and is (of course) about a Frenchman, so it has been round the geographic houses. And I read it on the train, on the way to meet up with a Canadian – specifically Clare from The Captive Reader.
In the case of Proust’s Overcoat, it is not Foschini who’s obsessed with Proust, though she is certainly beguiled by learning more about him. Rather, her tale is largely about Jacques Guérin and his obsession with Proust. Guérin was the inheritor and manager of a very successful perfume manufacturer, but his private life was spent in gathering what he could of Proust’s papers and possessions.
Foshcini winds together the outline of Proust’s life, chiefly looking at his relationship with his doctor brother Adrian, with the account of Guérin – who knew Adrian, and used this tentative connection to get access to what was left of Proust’s possession after A. Proust’s widow burned them. It could have made a much longer book, so it’s interesting that she chose to make it such a short one. I almost never want a short book to be longer, even when I’m not doing 25 Books in 25 Days, and I was happy for this one to be a snapshot – almost a curio. And threaded throughout is that fur-lined overcoat – from which Proust was apparently inseparable, summer or winter. Foschini’s book opens with her seeing it, and closes with mention of it in the discussion of Proust’s legacy.
That legacy is broad and interesting, and Foschini’s little book forms an intriguing, unusual, and oddly charming corner of it.
This looks VERY interesting! I’m really enjoying these posts!
Thanks Davida!
Sounds fascinating, Simon! I’ve not actually read a biography of Proust and am vaguely shocked that his belongings were burned…. awful! :(
Yes, there was no love lost between Proust and his sister-in-law! It sounds like a fascinating family dynamic – of which this was a snapshot.
Given he is best known for a very long work, a short book about Proust seems about as fitting as a three volume biography of an author of haiku. The latter would be one volume for each phrase!
Oooh, this sounds fun! And it took me on a weird free-association scavenger hunt in my mind 😂 I was a bit confused by the title at first: my brain went straight to Gogol’s Overcoat, and struggled to marry that up with Proust. Then your post reminded me of a short story I read just recently, Foucault and I by Lydia Davis – loved it!
Ha! Intriguing… And I once read Hallucinating Foucault, so I could read another Foucault title without reading anything by the man himself :D
Hahaha if you’ve never read Foucault, or tried and failed, Foucault And I is a fun read, very relatable!!