Group Read, November 2018: A Handful of Dust

Our group read for November is A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh. Please join the read and put any thoughts and comments on this thread.

I picked this up from the library and will start today. I've read and loved Brideshead Revisited, but I've also read Decline and Fall which I seem to remember annoyed me because it had too many examples of the racism of the time. Curious to see where this one falls.

I finished this last night and liked it. It takes a couple of dramatic turns in terms of plot that I won't give away. Anyone else planning to read it? It was a fairly quick read.

I’m going to read it when I finish Nana. I think they will make an interesting pair, being extremely French & extremely English.

I finished the introduction last night, so will start tackling the book today.

I'm planning to read it... picking up a copy from the library on Tuesday.

I am about to start my read of A Handful of Dust, I enjoyed Vile Bodies the other Waugh that I have read so I am looking forward to this one.

I'm about 50 pages in and so far this is a light comedy with a satirical edge. I love early 20th-century British comedy, but I have a sneaky feeling that something bad is lurking ahead for our characters. Otherwise this book would not be on the 1001!

One thing I'm thinking is that Brenda is the only character for whom Waugh does not seem to feel a kind of supercilious pity/contempt. I mean, the two men are each kind of pathetic in their own ways, as Waugh presents them. Brenda on the other hand he seems to rather like.

I finished this. It gets really rather odd towards the end. Not saying more for those still reading it.

OK, so Brenda is not a likable character either. She is not pathetic, just bizarrely superficial. Are these the alternatives Waugh presents us -- be pathetic, or be superficial? So far the characters are all one or the other and sometimes both.

I haven't read any Waugh for a long time and am certainly enjoying this, but not yet seeing the qualities that put it on the 1001 list.

I have finished my read of A Handful of Dust and I really thought this was an exceptional novel. A witty satire on the British upper class but when he gets into the meat of the story, it becomes very cynical and I found myself both gasping and giggling. I agree the ending was quite strange but this book has left me eager to read more from this author.

I just finished listening to this. This is my first book by this author and I really enjoyed it. At first I thought I was not going to like the narrator of the audio edition, Andrew Sachs, but as the story progressed, I realized he was perfect for it and thought he did an excellent job. I didn't care for any of the characters, but don't think we were supposed to. Although, I did feel a bit sorry for Tony and the way Brenda treated him. I was not expecting it to turn out that way in the end, but after mulling it over a bit, I think it was the perfect ending.

I finished the book earlier today, and I didn't care much for the characters or the story. You could say the story of the superficial ways of the upper class is social satire, but the people depicted just seemed too unlikeable and one-dimensional to generate much interest.

Once again, I'm late with a group read, but I finished this yesterday. I didn't particularly care for this one (though I've liked most of the other books by Waugh I've read.) I found this book a bit boring.... the most interesting part to me was Tony Last's trip abroad.