false 142492 20 Evelyn Waugh's second novel, VILE BODIES, is his tribute to London's smart set. It introduces us to society as it used to be but that now is gone forever, and probably for good. <P>Improbably, this is a love story in which Adam Fenwick-Symes, a destitute young writer, hungers for Nina Blount, daughter of an eccentric aristocrat. But at the same time, it is a satire that plays against the social whirl of a class doomed to extinction as certainly as the dodo. <P>"The defiant hilarity of a dance on a sinking ship." --Alexander Woolcott. 828762 1930 Vile Bodies total:1176|5:280|4:489|3:327|2:70|1:10| 1176 4487 1832 124 4 1 false false Mon Mar 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 13 05:24:17 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 16 06:28:58 -0700 2009
"The Loved One," his famous satire of the death business in the USA mildly amused me in high school. I found it at least more interesting than "Scoop," a look at ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Mar 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 30 13:08:36 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 30 13:09:03 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 24 08:45:07 -0800 2007 Fri Jan 11 17:05:08 -0800 2008
Took a long time to get through this book, and I'm still not entirely sure why. Part of it, I believe, is me, not Mr. Waugh. A good book really is the right match between the author's words and the reader's willingness to succumb to it, and I haven't been ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Oct 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 14:56:23 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 14:59:07 -0700 2009 is so clever: the man not only predicted Twitter seventy years before its advent, but he also had the prescience to mercilessly mock it as well.

As he says in the pref...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 15:44:33 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 15:58:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 2 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jan 02 13:41:20 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 02 13:45:40 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 12 07:14:06 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 14 07:35:26 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 18 08:16:19 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 09 14:58:40 -0700 2008 Quite probably an accurate portrait of high society in the twenties, amoralized by the great war, gutted of compassion and weary of human interaction.
I enjoyed the book and had a few ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Jul 10 11:21:51 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 13 07:05:29 -0700 2008 But it does include my new favorite expression, which is Ginger up! and I don't know what it means but it works in just about any mood room smile situation.

Only three stars because this is the same g...more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Sep 11 10:50:47 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 11 10:52:59 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Thu Oct 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 15:47:15 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 22:37:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Feb 18 17:39:14 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 18 17:42:34 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Sun Apr 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 30 07:06:30 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 19:32:30 -0700 2009 Bright Young People which I just finished reading. It is a fictional description of youthful society in London in the 1920s. The author was a member of that society as well as a chronicler
of their exploits in the gossip columns of the newspapers just as his protagonis...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Aug 16 17:43:58 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 18:59:47 -0700 2009
I feel it's not too soon to admit to this already being one of my favorite books of all time. Just lovely in every way.

I'd already seen the hilarious 2003 film adaptation by ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Oct 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 02 13:09:40 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 20:08:46 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Sep 16 18:06:36 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 23 23:32:27 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 31 22:23:42 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 22:27:07 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jun 11 13:12:45 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 19 07:29:34 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Feb 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 26 13:23:27 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 26 13:23:27 -0700 2009
Critics and literary academics have tried to divide the book into two distinct part...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Feb 21 10:30:44 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 10:35:41 -0800 2009 more...]]>