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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
An excellent black comedy and social satire. Waugh was a master prose stylist--there is an effervescence to his writing that is sort of the literary equivalent of Mozart.
Britain in the mid-twentieth century is rapidly changing; the power and status of the landed gentry is on the wane, and their once charming country estates are being shuttered and abandoned. The gradual dissipation of the Last's marriage, hastened by their fateful encounter with the lower-middle class John Beaver, is a microcosm of this larger social disintegration.
After suffering through a rapid series of personal crises, Tony Last impulsively joins an anthropological expedition to South America. The second half of the novel alternates between his hair-raising adventures in the deepest jungle and Brenda Last's futile attempt to break in John Beaver to her elite social circle and daily routines.
There are passages in the book that are laugh-out-loud funny (such as the scene when Tony and a friend drunk dial Brenda at her London flat), but there are other moments that border uncomfortably on tragedy. This veering of tone is by design, though I'm not sure it's fully successful. Nevertheless, this is a minor flaw in an otherwise delightful book.
Britain in the mid-twentieth century is rapidly changing; the power and status of the landed gentry is on the wane, and their once charming country estates are being shuttered and abandoned. The gradual dissipation of the Last's marriage, hastened by their fateful encounter with the lower-middle class John Beaver, is a microcosm of this larger social disintegration.
After suffering through a rapid series of personal crises, Tony Last impulsively joins an anthropological expedition to South America. The second half of the novel alternates between his hair-raising adventures in the deepest jungle and Brenda Last's futile attempt to break in John Beaver to her elite social circle and daily routines.
There are passages in the book that are laugh-out-loud funny (such as the scene when Tony and a friend drunk dial Brenda at her London flat), but there are other moments that border uncomfortably on tragedy. This veering of tone is by design, though I'm not sure it's fully successful. Nevertheless, this is a minor flaw in an otherwise delightful book.
Unrelentingly racist. And the message of the vanity and selfishness of upper-class people isn’t so unique or insightful that it’s worth ploughing through.
It’s time to retire this novel to history and make way for new voices.
It’s time to retire this novel to history and make way for new voices.
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Waugh is in his element here and I felt all the things he intended me to - frustration at the silliness of some of the characters, increasing despair for Tony, sadness for John Andrew, legend that he was. Bit of an unfortunate turn into racism that is so of its time it’s almost a satire of itself. I couldn’t tell if the introduction of Mr Todd was deliberately meant to skewer paternalistic colonialist attitudes, but seeing as though he was mixed race and this was directly tied to his illiteracy and villainousness I’m pretty sure it was just incredibly racist. Anyway not as good as Brideshead Revisited but I was actually able to finish this one unlike Vile Bodies so… it was fine.
challenging
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Waugh is a master novelist. That's my feeling after finishing this book.
I liked Brideshead Revisted a LOT, and read it twice. This book reminds me of bhr in promising ways.
I felt like the Catholic vision Waugh had in his head was not yet fully developed when A Handful of Dust was published. Especially around the end he has some suggestive (and terribly clever!) lines digging into that Catholic vein a bit, but they are subtle, and the overarching mood of the book is firmly pessemistic/ awe-inspiring.
Just like Brideshead Revisited the characters in this book come to life in vivid detail. This can be beautiful, as you glimpse into the innocence and fortitude of the human soul, but also quite morbid. It's almost as if Waugh paints images of imperfect angels who are cast away from Heaven. Not even cast away, Waugh is so subtle and nuanced a writer that it's more like the angels turned their backs to God voluntarily and walked out of Eden on their own accord.
This seems the most powerful thrust of the book to me. Humans, perfectly imperfect, who could have been happy all their days... had they not strayed so far from the path ... And so they suffer.
We see this theme in Brideshead Revisted, where the potentially idyllic lives the characters let slip through their fingers is summed up early in the book with reference to a painting "et in acadia ego" --- "Even in paradise I (death) am there."
Now, while in Brideshead Revisted the cast of characters seem to find salvation in grace before all is lost, in this book everyone basically fucking sucks and can't salvage anything, have fun in hell losers.
A particular exchange in conversation between Tony and his eventual captor (murderer?) caught my eye: Tony wants to get the fuck out of there, and his servitude is still unspoken , and presses his captor about taking a boat home.
His captor eventually drops the niceties and says simply "there is no boat".
In my mind is the image of Tony by the River Styx, waiting for Charon's ferry which won't come ... And simply wailing for 100 years on the shore (which is what u did when u didnt have a gold coin i guess) until Charon would finally ferry him across and let his death be complete.
Idk if Waugh did that on purpose ... Implying Tony is so damned he can't even die properly, but damn did it ever resonate with me immediately... Powerful.
Definitely worth a second read-through sometime. A complex, deep novel, which does an impressive job of maintaining subtlety. Finally, the ending is maybe one of the strongest, tightest, and most clever endings to a novel I can remember coming across. I scribbled madly on the last 20 pages, though the rest of my book managed to stay clean.
A new favourite.
I liked Brideshead Revisted a LOT, and read it twice. This book reminds me of bhr in promising ways.
I felt like the Catholic vision Waugh had in his head was not yet fully developed when A Handful of Dust was published. Especially around the end he has some suggestive (and terribly clever!) lines digging into that Catholic vein a bit, but they are subtle, and the overarching mood of the book is firmly pessemistic/ awe-inspiring.
Just like Brideshead Revisited the characters in this book come to life in vivid detail. This can be beautiful, as you glimpse into the innocence and fortitude of the human soul, but also quite morbid. It's almost as if Waugh paints images of imperfect angels who are cast away from Heaven. Not even cast away, Waugh is so subtle and nuanced a writer that it's more like the angels turned their backs to God voluntarily and walked out of Eden on their own accord.
This seems the most powerful thrust of the book to me. Humans, perfectly imperfect, who could have been happy all their days... had they not strayed so far from the path ... And so they suffer.
We see this theme in Brideshead Revisted, where the potentially idyllic lives the characters let slip through their fingers is summed up early in the book with reference to a painting "et in acadia ego" --- "Even in paradise I (death) am there."
Now, while in Brideshead Revisted the cast of characters seem to find salvation in grace before all is lost, in this book everyone basically fucking sucks and can't salvage anything, have fun in hell losers.
A particular exchange in conversation between Tony and his eventual captor (murderer?) caught my eye: Tony wants to get the fuck out of there, and his servitude is still unspoken , and presses his captor about taking a boat home.
His captor eventually drops the niceties and says simply "there is no boat".
In my mind is the image of Tony by the River Styx, waiting for Charon's ferry which won't come ... And simply wailing for 100 years on the shore (which is what u did when u didnt have a gold coin i guess) until Charon would finally ferry him across and let his death be complete.
Idk if Waugh did that on purpose ... Implying Tony is so damned he can't even die properly, but damn did it ever resonate with me immediately... Powerful.
Definitely worth a second read-through sometime. A complex, deep novel, which does an impressive job of maintaining subtlety. Finally, the ending is maybe one of the strongest, tightest, and most clever endings to a novel I can remember coming across. I scribbled madly on the last 20 pages, though the rest of my book managed to stay clean.
A new favourite.
the first half of the book I thought oh same old story different author...but I actually really loved the second half of the book. him going to explore a jungle was so ridiculous! but that's what I loved
Strictly speaking a 3.5
I was struggling for a while before rating this read. Likable, no. Enjoyable? Grudgingly yes... Harrowing? Also reluctantly yes. Finally, relevant? Resounding yes!
Then it struck it, about it's similarity in form and tone to the recent Academy Best Picture winner Parasite, though having been from an earlier era and different setting, and an unique story of its own.
Yes all the elements of savage satire are there, and literature has been at this, way before cinema had it's dabbling until this recent darling of a film.
"It is for your own good that I am telling you... I know you are friends of my wife and that is why you will not listen to me. But be careful. She will say nothing cruel, she will not raise her voice, there will be no hard words. She hopes you will be great friends afterwards as before. But she will leave you. She will go away quietly during the night. She will take her hammock and her rations of farine... Listen to me. I know I am not clever but that is no reason why we should forget all courtesy. Let us kill in the gentlest manner. I will tell you what I have learned in the forest, where time is different. There is no City."
Unfortunately, it seems that fawning over this groundbreaking epiphany about life dies down eventually, we are destined to forget all the unpredictability, harshness and wicked critique, rendering it obsolete, till the next awakening all over again...
I was struggling for a while before rating this read. Likable, no. Enjoyable? Grudgingly yes... Harrowing? Also reluctantly yes. Finally, relevant? Resounding yes!
Then it struck it, about it's similarity in form and tone to the recent Academy Best Picture winner Parasite, though having been from an earlier era and different setting, and an unique story of its own.
Yes all the elements of savage satire are there, and literature has been at this, way before cinema had it's dabbling until this recent darling of a film.
"It is for your own good that I am telling you... I know you are friends of my wife and that is why you will not listen to me. But be careful. She will say nothing cruel, she will not raise her voice, there will be no hard words. She hopes you will be great friends afterwards as before. But she will leave you. She will go away quietly during the night. She will take her hammock and her rations of farine... Listen to me. I know I am not clever but that is no reason why we should forget all courtesy. Let us kill in the gentlest manner. I will tell you what I have learned in the forest, where time is different. There is no City."
Unfortunately, it seems that fawning over this groundbreaking epiphany about life dies down eventually, we are destined to forget all the unpredictability, harshness and wicked critique, rendering it obsolete, till the next awakening all over again...
Read my full thoughts over at Read.Write.Repeat.
It's easy to get caught up in the beauty of the writing and the skin deep idyllic scenes. I loved the book for that. It reminded me a lot of The Age of Innocence in that way. Beauty and excess abound, yet so do poor intentions and flippant attitudes about serious matters. I kept vacillating back and forth, trying to decide whether I liked the book or found it level with the other seemingly mass-produced Brit lit classics I've been slogging through for this challenge. Don't get me wrong. You know I love them, but they do all start to run together after a while.
It's easy to get caught up in the beauty of the writing and the skin deep idyllic scenes. I loved the book for that. It reminded me a lot of The Age of Innocence in that way. Beauty and excess abound, yet so do poor intentions and flippant attitudes about serious matters. I kept vacillating back and forth, trying to decide whether I liked the book or found it level with the other seemingly mass-produced Brit lit classics I've been slogging through for this challenge. Don't get me wrong. You know I love them, but they do all start to run together after a while.
A very clever and amusing book, and probably a well-aimed satire on the mores of its own time, but it falls a bit flat now. And to appreciate the broader themes and humour demands more misanthropy than I can muster.