Here There Be Books (BL)

Originally posted at Here There Be Books.You may remember my review of another Evelyn Waugh book from last summer's British humor class. Or maybe not, because I can barely remember that post, and I'm the one that wrote it. But basically I hated it, and I hated Evelyn Waugh and I wanted nothing more to do with him.Then I found a two-in-one book of his in a free book box (the same box that had Rebecca) and I thought "well, why not." I think I decided to give Evelyn Waugh another go because of something Stephen Fry said about him-- about Waugh being one of his favorite authors alongside Wodehouse and Wilde-- anyway, I had the book, and I brought it to BEA with me, and then I read the first novel and I realized what, exactly, was so good about Evenly Waugh's writing.That book I read last summer? Wasn't my thing. THIS book, A Handful of Dust, THIS is more my thing. I'll tell you why it's my thing, and I'll do it in a handy list format because I'm nice like that:1. I didn't get the humor in The Loved One. I get the humor in A Handful of Dust! It's less fuck-you and more oh-you-people-annoy-me. It's satire and dark humor and it doesn't involve too many dead people, which I guess is a bonus. I suppose Evelyn Waugh must have been less cynical and irritated when he wrote A Handful of Dust.2. The characters are much more relatable and much less irritating, despite the fact that they're basically stereotypes of Silly Modern British People. For all that they're stereotypes, they still felt like real people, something that the characters in The Loved One never managed to accomplish.3. The ending was one of the spookiest things I've ever read. It's like the book went from satire to thriller to horror, although really I might have only been so horrified because Charles Dickens was involved.4. I also think the writing in general is just better in A Handful of Dust. It's got the same punch to it that The Loved One has, but it's more...refined. Or something. (There are way too many ellipses, though.)So I just really liked A Handful of Dust and now I like Evelyn Waugh much more than I did before. The other novel in my book is Decline and Fall, and I'm going to read it just as soon as I can find the blasted book again. I've lost it somewhere in the unpacking of suitcase/book box/etc from the BEA trip. It's got to be around here somewhere...