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j_f 's review for:
Brideshead Revisited
by Evelyn Waugh
Brideshead Revisited is a flawed book. Its premise is, at best, non-committal and, at worst, downright dull. The author doesn’t spend time on many aspects of the plot and characterization that I would have preferred to read about, and his characters are almost nothing like me in experiences or personality.
By all accounts, I should dislike this book, but I don’t. Frankly, I enjoyed every word and wanted to keep flipping through the pages to find out what happened next.
There is something sinister, subversive and bewitching in a story that seems, at first and second and third glance, plain and drily “English.” To call it “cozy” is completely wrong, because the word brings to mind an entirely different kind of book—something trite, overdone. Yet, the novel is cozy. Maybe the sinister quality perversely makes it comforting. It’s certainly not a jarring, offensive kind of bewitchment.
I will also say that synopses of this book that float around online don’t do it any favours. I pick books from my Goodreads TBR by scrolling through, looking at the descriptions and picking something that catches my interest in the moment. If I had left it to that, I would never have read Brideshead Revisited. I’m glad I didn’t remove it from my TBR, as I came close to doing several times.
By all accounts, I should dislike this book, but I don’t. Frankly, I enjoyed every word and wanted to keep flipping through the pages to find out what happened next.
There is something sinister, subversive and bewitching in a story that seems, at first and second and third glance, plain and drily “English.” To call it “cozy” is completely wrong, because the word brings to mind an entirely different kind of book—something trite, overdone. Yet, the novel is cozy. Maybe the sinister quality perversely makes it comforting. It’s certainly not a jarring, offensive kind of bewitchment.
I will also say that synopses of this book that float around online don’t do it any favours. I pick books from my Goodreads TBR by scrolling through, looking at the descriptions and picking something that catches my interest in the moment. If I had left it to that, I would never have read Brideshead Revisited. I’m glad I didn’t remove it from my TBR, as I came close to doing several times.