Category: british fiction

Sometimes, just sometimes, I fall so hard for a book that I would even consider myself a bit strange. It happened with Theft. It happened with Hunger. And now it’s happened again with Evelyn Waugh’s masterpiece, Brideshead Revisited. I love this book so much that I want to sleep with it under my pillow for weeks. I love this book so much that I wish it was alive so that I could kiss it.

Subtitled, “The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder,” the novel opens up in the midst of the Second World War, as the book’s protagonist (he of the subtitle) pauses before his company departs the position they’ve held for the last three months. As he says, “Here love had died between me and the army,” setting up the aesthetic nature of his character, Charles Ryder is presented as a thinking man’s soldier, from the upper classes, a man who fights more so because of the excitement than perhaps the duty. The new position his company takes up is at Brideshead, a castle that belongs to the Flyte family, a group of people who made an impossible impact on Charles’s life.

As the novel moves backwards to tell the story of how he first came to Brideshead, Charles recounts his own glory days at Oxford with one of the sons, Sebastian. Charles falls hard for Sebastian, for his strange ways (and odd teddy bear) and falls equally hard for his family, his sister Julia in particular. As the novel progresses and the friendship is tested again and again because of Sebastian’s drinking, their lives grow in different directions. Then, ten years pass, Charles is married, Julia is married, and yet they seem to pick up naturally where they left off, and it’s this love affair that defines the rest of their lives.

I don’t even really have the words to describe how lovely the prose remains throughout. How well-crafted the story is, how ingenious Waugh is when it comes to creating voice and character. The novel doesn’t drag (it was better than TV this week, hands down) and it makes you want to dive into the imaginary pages and wear the clothes, live the unhappy lives and experience the world as these people for just a moment. Kate sent me a note this morning about how I shouldn’t watch the movie version that recently came out — instead, she said, I HAVE to watch the miniseries (which I just ordered as a treat to myself from Amazon). For so many, the most important theme in the novel is faith, and I won’t argue that it is, the Flyte’s are Catholic and the struggle to balance the idea of religion in a world that finds it increasingly irrelevant remains consistent throughout the novel. But, of course, being the incurable romantic, it was the love story, both the idea of the glorious friendships of youth and the affairs that forever change your life, that really held my attention. Just glorious.

READING CHALLENGES: Of course this book’s on the 1001 Books list so I’m counting it as one of the books for that challenge.

WHAT’S UP NEXT: I started reading Choke this morning on the subway. We’ll see how that goes.

I have fallen so far behind in my reading that I couldn’t believe it when I finally finished a whole book. Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is a lovely way to ease back into actual book blogging. A well-known story, captured by the 1995 Ang Lee film starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, the novel took me a while to read, only because my mind has been occupied on so many other things.

Put out of their house by their father’s son (their half-brother), the Dashwoods (Elinor, Marianne, Margaret and Mrs.) are given a home by a distant cousin, Sir John Middleton. A man who does love a good dance, Sir John takes it upon himself to bring the Dashwoods well into his social circle, which includes his wife, Lady Middleton, Mrs. Jennings (her mother and an ardent matchmaker), and various other cousins and, of course, Colonel Brandon. Marianne Dashwood, the younger, impetuous, full-hearted sister of Elinor, falls madly for a rake named Willoughby, who doesn’t act at all like a gentleman of sense should. And while we’re on the topic of men in troubling situations, let’s not for get Elinor’s paramour, Edward Ferrars, who also suffers from a dose of poor judgment when it comes to the human heart. Elinor, the rock of good sense, whose own sensibilities are put to the test over and over again, might just be my favourite of all the Austen heroines. She’s smart, plucky and full of incredibly smart things to say.

What else can I add? I love Jane Austen. I love every book of hers I read. I love the fact that I saved her for this stage of my life, when I can appreciate her long sentences and brilliant structures. When I’m not a foolish girl organizing my literary degree upon avoiding anything that wasn’t published in the 20th century.

PHOTO IN CONTEXT: Just the cover tonight, I’m afraid.

READING CHALLENGES: The first of the two 1001 Books I’m to read this month, which means I’m still on track to meet at least one of my reading goals this month.

WHAT’S UP NEXT: The Horseman’s Graves by Jacqueline Baker

Finishing up Graham Greene’s exquisite little The Quiet American brings me up to speed now in terms of my 1001 Books club, and this post is a milestone in the blogging world too, as I’ve hit 1000 posts. Instead of writing the same things in two different places, I’m just going to copy and paste what I posted up on the boards:

What did you think of the book?

I appreciated the short, succinct nature of The Quiet American. I enjoyed the book’s politics, its own powerful, yet stilted, observations about the conflict from Fowler’s point of view, and the overwhelming drive for Pyle not only to save the country from itself, but to marry Phuong, to “save” her in a sense.

Had you read this author before?

No, but I had seen the movie (although I didn’t remember all of it).

Would you read something by him again?

Absolutely.

What would you rank this book out of 10?

8.

Do you think it deserves to be included on the list of 1001 and why?

I do think it deserves to be on the 1001 Books list. Why is a much harder question. I think unlike books on the list like The Lambs of London (which absolutely do not belong on the list) or every single title that Ian McEwan has written (I think they were desperate to fill the pages by then; and not that many don’t deserve to be, but every one?), The Quiet American has a fascinating sense of morality underlying its narrative: the line between good and evil isn’t clear, not in war, not in life, and certainly not between men.

As a kind of conversation between neo-colonialism (of the quiet kind) and overwrought, more classic colonialism of the French and British, the novel puts the characters of Pyle and Fowler in impossible situations, if only to prove the utter uselessness of either side. Pyle can no more get over his innocence in terms of his believe in the justifiable reasons behind his cause than Fowler can actually return to his old life in London. Both are changed and immutable at the same time, much like the old ideals each side clings to during the war.

Any insightful literary critiques?

The edition that I found (it’s a British Vintage, I think) has an introduction by Zadie Smith, who points out that Fowler’s description of the war is never far behind a major plot point. That even though he states over and over again that he is neutral, whether that actually turns out to be true or not, not becoming involved is impossible. Narrative and politics become merged into one, as if the setting can’t help but stretch itself into every single aspect of the story, which remains the reason why the novel succeeds.

And this line: “She put the needle down and sat back on her heels, looking at me. There was no scene, no tears, just thought — the long private thought of somebody who has to alter a whole course of life.”

PHOTO IN CONTEXT: I didn’t like the cover of the one I have here so I just searched out one I preferred.

READING CHALLENGES: I’m on track now for the 2 per month 1001 Books challenge, and finishing this book brings my complete score to 151. I am enjoying these classics so much that I’ve already started Sense and Sensibility. I might not read anything written in this century for a while. However, I do have work reading and Canadian challenge to get back to too.