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A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
Grade: B+

Can you imagine how frightfully embarassing it must be to live in a dreadful Gothic estate, passed down through generations, and perched on acres of rolling English countryside where you have guests to keep you company virtually every weekend and your most difficult decision is whether to go on a fox hunt or to ride horses?

No?

But Evelyn Waugh is one of our great 20th century satirists, surely you must recognize the comedy?

Still no?

Okay, okay. That was my brief homage to Doug's review of this book which I actually found mildly humorous, though not nearly as laugh-out-loud funny as most reviewers seem to.

Waugh does an admirable job of weaving a bit of wry humor into his tale of a crumbling marriage amongst members of the (at least outwardly)affluent English idle-class of the early twentieth century. The story is tragic and I felt genuinely bad for the protagonist Tony Last while his world fell apart at the seams. At the same time I couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of some of the circumstances he found himself in as the rift between him and his wife grew wider. The divorce process was particularly amusing and it was heartbreaking to see that that debaucle proved how much Tony loved his wife Brenda.

Through most of the novel Tony remains happily ambivalet, or perhaps ignorant, to Brenda's creeping disconnect with him and her former life as loafing housewife. He supports her morally and financially as her wholesome daytrips to London become decidedly less wholesome and decidedly less temporary, until he eventually cracks and his backbone seems to grow out of nowhere.

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh: Review Part 2

And then comes the ending. HOLY SHIT! I didn't see that coming.

There is a bit o' hype about this in case you haven't heard. And if you haven't -- GOOD. Go read this for the ending alone. It's a short read at 320 wide-spaced, big-lettered pages. You can make it through 'A Handful of Dust part 1' quickly, and it's actually quite good in my opinion, before you get to chapter 5 and 'A Handful of Dust part 2: The Son of 'A Handful of Dust's' Bride's Monster' begins and you scratch your head wondering what the hell happened to the first 200-some pages.

I'm not going to give anything away at all about the ending and would say not to even read the backpage description if avoidable. The ending is, umm, surprising and the first 200 plus pages make it all the better.

Read this book, it's good.