In Search of Lost Time, Vol. VI: The Fugitive

"Yes. The Fugitive is the shortest of the volumes, and definitely the bleakest. So we’re really getting into the depths, here. This section of the book involves a break-up, a bereavement, and a slow, incremental, intermittent recovery. One thing that this does is bring certain questions about identity into sharp relief. There’s a really nice line where the character says: My life appeared to me … as something utterly devoid of the support of an individual, identical and permanent self. That crystallises all the things you would want, if you want a sense of identity. You want to feel like you’re individual—that you’re not just a cog in the machine. You want to be identical—not fractured into antithetical drives. And you want to be permanent, not a radically different being to who you were a year ago, or even yesterday. But this character feels like he has been smashed into smithereens, right? The experience of the break-up and bereavement—he’s lost a sense of wholeness across time. He’s lost a sense of distinction from the crowd. He also lacks the ability to know much about himself. All these things become real problems. These have been problems before, but this is the moment of maximal concern about how he can go on, and who he can be."