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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
Seemingly light-hearted story about a marriage that breaks down and ends on a foreign expedition in the Amazon forest. But in fact it is an inkt-black description of the human soul, both in the modern and the primitive society. Only Tony Last, with his obsession for his Gothic House, seems like innocence itself. Nice read, but not Waugh's best.
dark
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Everyone ends up going wrong, and it's brilliant. It took me maybe a third of the book to get into it, but it might be one of his best
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
medium-paced
dark
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A lot of nothing and characters I don’t care about
This book has high highs, and low lows.
It’s a bit frenetic - when it’s being a screwball divorce comedy, it’s absolutely perfect.
But it has moments that jar so completely.
And then, like all Waugh’s books, this needs a massive racism and antisemitism warning. It’s usually especially
jarring because these moments often come out of no where in the middle of a comedic scene.
This edition included an alternative ending which I would recommend
It’s a bit frenetic - when it’s being a screwball divorce comedy, it’s absolutely perfect.
But it has moments that jar so completely.
And then, like all Waugh’s books, this needs a massive racism and antisemitism warning. It’s usually especially
jarring because these moments often come out of no where in the middle of a comedic scene.
This edition included an alternative ending which I would recommend
Stupid Evelyn Waugh, creating characters that aren't 100% reprehensible, then causing them damage, one by one. This book just broke my heart, but it's my own fault for caring.
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Get married young, have kids young, live vapidly and have a midlife crisis at 26. Truly, a takedown of the nouveau riche as relevant to the grey velvet furnished live-laugh-love brigade today as it was to Mrs Beaver and her chromium plating then. Phenomenal.
I had read this at school, and still there was a sentence halfway through that actually made me gasp.
I had read this at school, and still there was a sentence halfway through that actually made me gasp.