The Clayton's Proust

I recently looked at the copy of Proust's In Search of Lost Time, sitting un-read on my bookshelf and wondered if I should release it from my TBR pile. Afterall, I have more chance of scoffing down a madeleine than getting through the first few pages. However, I keep bumping into Proust all the time, reading Colette, reading Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal, and it makes me wonder, does one really need to read Proust, or are there so many books about him that one can experience a Clayton's Proust?

(Note: Clayton's is a non-alcoholic drink. The jingle had something about, 'the drink you have when not having a drink') so in Australia having a Clayton's is a term used to say you are having a substitute for the real thing).

Recently I read about Proust in Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini. Though it was about Proust, it was really about a Proust collector.

And then there is of course this:

 Maybe he can, but I haven't really worked out how... Proust a philosopher?

And this, brilliant cover, but Proust a Neuroscientist?

And Proust as Vanity Fair journalist?

Not to mention the book about Proust and the Squid?

All this Proust fan fiction really kindles my encouragement to read Proust, but every time I start, my eyes have to start again at that first page and get tangled in those sticky long sentences, my mind wanders and I start thinking of the past and wanting a madeleine.  

So is reading Clayton's Proust better than the real thing?