cocoonofbooks 's review for:

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

3.0

---

The audio narration by Jeremy Irons saved this one for me, but even then I didn't like it all that much. It's dry and melancholy and takes too long to make its point; you think Sebastian is going to be the central character of the book but then he goes off and we barely hear from him again. The writing itself is quite beautiful, and there is a lot of great dialogue and characterization, so the experience of reading/listening was enjoyable, but then the story never really went anywhere. As a Catholic I could relate to what the Flyte family drew from their faith, but then the book ended up being a weird Catholic apologia that I didn't really jive with. I don't know. It was fine, but I have a hard time understanding what so many people love about it.