Here is the thing about this book: I´m intrigued by it, but after having finished one chapter, I´m ruminating on it for about half a day.

Not only have I to digest the things that are happening between these eccentric characters, I have to wrap my head around the language and the whole Oxford college situation, which is confusing because I know absolutely nothing about the college system in Oxford, its customs and schedules.

All of this doesn´t make this a book fit for BL-opoly. It´s a book I want to read slowly, thinking about it for a bit after I have finished a chapter and don´t feel pressured into reading it. Which I ultimately do, if I´m reading it for the game. And I would really like to read a book alongside it, which isn´t such a demanding read as this one is.

So this might end up being a DNF for the game, without me actually DNFing this book (if that makes sense to you). That way I could throw the dice once more tomorrow, picking a lighter read and I can finish this book at my own leisure.

 Brideshead Revisited it is. After the prologue I´m really curious about the main character and his connection with this place.

So let's just acknowledge two things.  First, Evelyn Waugh was not a pleasant person.  Anything you read about him makes that clear.  Second, this book is full of racism.  There's no way to get around that.

Once you've acknowledged those two issues, this book is fabulous.  Satire at its best!  William Boot, a country squire who writes the column Lush Places about tiny furry creatures, is sent to cover a war in Africa in place of another Boot who writes much more progressive stuff.  Hilarity ensures.  I'm not saying that sarcastically like I usually am when I use that phrase.  This is genuinely funny stuff about the cut-throat world of journalism and what happens when you HAVE to get a story, no matter what.  It would be fascinating to see what Waugh would do with the 24 hour news cycle. 

Once I accept the first two issues I mentioned, I was completely caught up in Boot's adventures in Ishmaelia.  It's not hard to see why Scoop is often considered the best satirical novel of the 20th century.

Largely regarded as Waugh's best work, Brideshead Revisited is one book I mostly associate with the tv adaptation rather than the book because it has been so long since I read the book that the tv adaptation, with all its visual charm and great acting, obviously left a more recent impression. Yet, I was not a fan of the story itself when watching the production, and from what I remember I could not connect with some of the major themes of the book on my first read. 

On re-reading the book, I discovered that take on the story, the characters, the writing, or the ideas put forth in the book has changed a little.

It was easier to engage with the book now that I have read other books by Waugh and his contemporaries, but at the same time I also found it way more tedious to slog through the last part of the book. 

Yes, the sadness of the characters is very real and dramatic, but I seem to have less patience now than on my first read for the self-imposed suffering that Waugh's characters take on by insisting that they have to sacrifice their chance of happiness for the sake of religion. At that, for a religious faith which seems to have arrived out of the blue...and with that I also had little patience for Waugh's religious philosophising, which I am sure some readers may see as the essence of quality in this story. For me, it spoilt the story and the character study just as much as Graham Greene's religious theorising spoilt reading his The Power and the Glory or Monsignor Quixote for me. 

What I would have liked to have had fleshed out a bit more was Sebastian's state of mind. Why did he chose to go into exile? Why did he loose the spirit with which he was described in the opening chapters of the book?

Still, despite the short-comings of the book, of which there were a few (including Waugh's casting a couple of stereotyped characters), it is an interesting book and one of Waugh's better one. The opening descriptions of Charles' return to Brideshead, the contracts in the circumstances of his visits, the implied description of the fall of the upper classes, and the unbelievable sadness of Charles' realisation that he has wasted his life is as beautiful as it is harrowing. The only author I have read who has outclassed Waugh in writing about these aspects is Ishiguro ... but if you ask me, he is in a completely different league altogether.  

Lastly, a note on the audiobook read by Jeremy Irons. It is fabulous!

Book themes for Día de Muertos and All Saint’s Day:  A book that has a primarily black and white cover, or one that has all the colours (ROYGBIV) together on the cover.

I'm trying to do a bit of catch-up on the 16 Tasks but find that the task and books for each square seem too fabulous to pass or simply move on to another square.

I've been meaning to revisit Brideshead for quite some time, but every time I seem to come across Waugh I am reminded of the last couple of titles of his I read and how much I dislike his spite. (And yet, I adore Vile Bodies!)

From what I remember, there are parts in Brideshead Revisited that are absolutely fabulous, but it has been too long (15+ years?) since I read it, and I am sure that my observations will change, too. 

This visitation was brought on by my finding the audiobook (unabridged) read by Jeremy Irons to listen to alongside the book.

My editions - kindle and audiobook - have the black and while cover.