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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
This is such a good book. If you want a really amazing analysis of English upper class, this is the book for you.
The ending completely catches you though. Really really odd ending.
The ending completely catches you though. Really really odd ending.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A Handful of Dust is a difficult book to characterize, for me. I started very slowly but picked up interest at about the halfway point.
I had the feeling the book was about the trivial and superficial concerns of the English gentry. There seems to be considerable importance in going to posh parties. This is especially true of Bever, the son of Mrs. Bever who supports her son with earnings from her business of decorating homes, etc. Early in the book Bever advises us that he saves 5 pounds per week in rent by staying with his mother. a significant part of his uncertain income which hovers about 6 pounds per week.
The story becomes very complicated when Brenda, Tony Last's wife, decides to go to London to study economics. She gets connected with Beaver and, well, you can see where this might be taking you. At any rate, Tony eventually agrees to divorce Brenda, making Brenda look like the abused party. This also gets complicated because of alimony concerns and attorneys. Tony leaves on an adventure and one of two endings occur. I won't go into the details, but it's an interesting read.
Don't neglect to read the Book Club additions.
All in all, it's an interesting read.
I had the feeling the book was about the trivial and superficial concerns of the English gentry. There seems to be considerable importance in going to posh parties. This is especially true of Bever, the son of Mrs. Bever who supports her son with earnings from her business of decorating homes, etc. Early in the book Bever advises us that he saves 5 pounds per week in rent by staying with his mother. a significant part of his uncertain income which hovers about 6 pounds per week.
The story becomes very complicated when Brenda, Tony Last's wife, decides to go to London to study economics. She gets connected with Beaver and, well, you can see where this might be taking you. At any rate, Tony eventually agrees to divorce Brenda, making Brenda look like the abused party. This also gets complicated because of alimony concerns and attorneys. Tony leaves on an adventure and one of two endings occur. I won't go into the details, but it's an interesting read.
Don't neglect to read the Book Club additions.
All in all, it's an interesting read.
Grim, sad and unpleasant. Really well written, but odd.
dark
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A wonderfully heartbreaking, bizarre comedy of errors
FUCK BRENDA I'M SO GLAD THERE'S AN ALTERNATE ENDING. This book tore me up. It made me so upset and frustrated I had to vent to my mum who probably had no idea what I was talking about and probably didn't care either. But I had to talk to someone about the torture Evelyn Waugh put me through. He's the first person I would want to speak to if there is a heaven. This book starts out seeming like a cosy little English novel about posh people and parties, but becomes more unbearable as you go through, the more you start to sympathize with Tony. Waugh uses a clever technique of contrasting Tony's journey and that of his unfaithful wife Brenda, which results in an extraordinary and again, painful, irony. I suggest you take the alternate ending as the true one as the original ending is far from happy.
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Darkly comic tale with an abrupt shift in focus midway through the book. There is likely some analogy that has gone over my head that would have made the plot more meaningful to me, but Waugh's writing is always a pleasure.
The brutality of the final third of this book is something to behold. It felt fitting that I finished it the day after the American people chose to elect Donald Trump for a second term. We are all just being held against our will and tortured—Just like Tony Last.