A Handful Of Dust

Rating:
Summary: Satire is Supposed to be Funny
Review: Although this book is very well written as are all of Waugh's books, it is more invective than satire. Who cares about these people. Spend your time reading some Dickens---over and over again if necessary.

Rating:
Summary: Shocking and Disturbing
Review: Evelyn Waugh's "A Handful of Dust" is a masterpiece of dry British wit. It's acerbic and scathingly satirical with a truly disturbing ending that completely disorients the reader. I can't really talk about it without giving it away, so I strongly encourage you to read and find out for yourself.

I like Waugh the most when he mixes his penchant for humour with his angry razor-sharp social commentary, as he does here. "Scoop," another of his acclaimed novels, is funny, but it doesn't have the compelling conviction behind it that "Dust" does. And "Brideshead Revisited" is beautifully written, but I miss the humour.

"Dust," like most of Waugh's novels, is an incredibly quick read, and it's filled with the kind of humour that makes you uncomfortable for laughing at it. When it was over, I found myself deeply moved, and the images associated with the novel's closing scenes have found a permanent place in my imagination.

Read this book. Read it now.

Rating:
Summary: Shocking and Disturbing
Review: Evelyn Waugh's "A Handful of Dust" is a masterpiece of dry British wit. It's acerbic and scathingly satirical with a truly disturbing ending that completely disorients the reader. I can't really talk about it without giving it away, so I strongly encourage you to read and find out for yourself.

I like Waugh the most when he mixes his penchant for humour with his angry razor-sharp social commentary, as he does here. "Scoop," another of his acclaimed novels, is funny, but it doesn't have the compelling conviction behind it that "Dust" does. And "Brideshead Revisited" is beautifully written, but I miss the humour.

"Dust," like most of Waugh's novels, is an incredibly quick read, and it's filled with the kind of humour that makes you uncomfortable for laughing at it. When it was over, I found myself deeply moved, and the images associated with the novel's closing scenes have found a permanent place in my imagination.

Read this book. Read it now.

Rating:
Summary: Savagery With Tea
Review: Evelyn Waugh's powers of prose were never more on display than in this shameless, nasty, witty novel that reads like lightning and scorches like flame.

At one point near the end, our sort-of-hero, Tony Last, learns about native customs in the Amazon by a dicey explorer named Dr. Messinger: "They buried me up to the neck in mud and all the women of the tribe spat on my head. Then we ate a toad and a snake and a beetle and after that I was a blood-brother."

Not exactly enticing, but compared to the culture Tony has thus far been immersed in, London between the wars, it sounds too lovely to pass up. "A Handful Of Dust" is as dark a critique of civilized mores as one can imagine, and though it comes off at times as far-fetched, the view of life is even more disturbing, and blackly humorous, for being true.

A rural nobleman who only wants to live in his Gothic manor with his family, Tony finds himself the victim of his wife Brenda's sudden bout of unfaithfulness. She sets off, rather inexplicably, with a Mommy-coddled cheapskate named Beaver. For her, it's something to do. For her cosmopolitan circle, it's a cause not for concern but merry gossip. "You know, you're causing a great deal of trouble," her sister Marjorie confides. "You've taken London's only spare man."

If cruel social satire is your cup of tea, you won't go wrong with "A Handful Of Dust." Waugh is not working from the heart here, but from the spleen, but once you allow for the fact caring is out the window for the reader and the cast, what you get is a pretty thorough and, in its upside-down way, satisfying exposition on the petty viciousness of cheating hearts. If you've ever come across a real heartbreaker in life, and who hasn't, this book offers a perverse form of solace.

While Brenda's heartlessness is milked in depth, it's really the enabling connivance of her kinfolk and friends that Waugh sends up so masterfully. It's what makes his novel a treat. Tony, we understand, is a stick and a bore, but he not only cares for his wife but trusts her blindly, which makes her adultery and her circle's abetting of it particularly cruel. No doubt to point up the amoral nature of secular London's high society, the Catholic Waugh gives us dialogue that ricochets back heavily on the speakers, as they wonder why Tony doesn't just accept his losses, sell his manor to satisfy Brenda's exorbitant alimony demands, and not be such a bore about it.

The drawback in this book, as other reviewers here note, is in the ending, not because it is sour but so out of left field. Even though there's a nice juxtaposition of the Amazon and London, Tony's strange expedition, and its resolution, don't add to the proceedings so much as push them in another direction that seems to add Waugh himself to Last's already-thick stable of tormentors. It's not a bad ending, but it doesn't maintain the drama or the subtlety of what passed before.

But there's plenty to enjoy here, like the dialogue, the odd mix of characters, and sublime moments of balmy nonsense, like the vicar who recycles ill-fitting sermons from a long-ago India sojourn. Waugh writes about Tony's manor with a zest that makes architecture seem witty, while even the harshest moments have a cold, brave beauty about them. This is a book difficult to put down, and impossible to forget.



Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: Every now and then, you pick up a novel and suddenly realize you're reading a classic of 20th Century Literature. This was what I experienced when I started reading "A Handful of Dust". What is amazing is that Waugh has put so much into such a short novel. There is a unique mixture of humor and drama in the life of a young British couple. They represent the two divergent paths of British society in England between the wars. The wife is a modern British woman who is what might be termed a "flapper" in this country. "Where's the party?" would seem to be her motto. The husband is a representative of the old school landed gentry whose estate is the focus of his attention. We see them drift apart and then, just as we're focussed on their relationship, tragedy strikes and the novels takes a different turn. The ensuing part of the novel takes a bizarre turn but ends with the author's reaffirmation of traditional British values. The author's keen wit and sense of subtle imagery makes every page a real joy. This is Waugh's masterpiece and is recommended to all readers.

Rating:
Summary: Not Anti-Climactic; A Sinister Ending for a DisturbingBook.
Review: Having just read "Decline and Fall" I was all ready for another book of nonsense and scathing satire. If you'll pardon my clumsy extending of the "rapier wit" metaphor here, this novel is more than scathing; it cuts to the quick. For the first part of the book, I was, in equal measure, amused and repelled by the characters and plot. Then came the first climax with the death of Tony and Brenda's son John. Sad, and difficult to read, but more chilling was Brenda's "Thank God" when she realised it was John her son, not John Beaver her lover who had been killed. From here on in the plot becomes darker and stickier.

With the account of the vicar and the church earlier on, it is already clear that religion is not going to be able to help Tony in this novel. In the jungle, the manners and mores of society are redundant too. This world is, like the characters (almost without exception, vicious, bleak and self-serving). A wasteland truly like T. S. Eliots "Wasteland" from which the title of the novel comes.

Far from being disappointed by the ending as many of the reviewers, I found it to be a deeply haunting climax. When the satire deepens and darkens and the nonsense bows out a bit at the death of little John, the transfer to the jungle is surprising, if a little jarring, but, all said, I think the novel and particularly the ending will stay with me for a long time to come.

There are a few reasons for my not giving this the full five stars though. One is that in recalling the story I do think of it in two distinct halves rather than one whole but, depending on your point of view, this is not necessarily problematic. There are some themes that bridge the two however. For example, the bugs and parasites of the jungle parallel the socially parasitic Beaver; both start out as minor irritants to Tony but end up doing him real harm (the loss of Brenda and the delirium in the jungle). The reader sees the pitfalls of both for Tony almost right away, but he seems unworried and even unaware of the dangers until they are right upon him.

The other reason for giving this four, not five, stars is that some characters seemed to just pop in and out and leave one feeling disappointed that their characters and story threads were not more fully developed. The "Shameless Blonde" for one was one of the more likable characters in the novel and, given her role as Tony's only really useful comforter at his son's death, it is a bit irritating that she just flies off in her plane never to be seen again. Similarly, Therese de Vitre on the boat to the West Indes, pops up, seems important and interesting for a bit, then disappears. Conversely, Jock Grant-Menzies, friend to Tony and the witness to Brenda's chilling "Thank God" comment (same one as mentioned above) marries her at the end of the book. Why? That is puzzling and it seems a bit too neat to tie them together when there are the loose ends of the "Shameless Blonde" and Therese de Vitre flapping around.

Overall though I thought this was a good book, and as I have already said, one that I won't forget very quickly for its sinister second half.

Rating:
Summary: I totally agree with any of the negative points made so far
Review: Having read The Loved One last term I was glad to see another Waugh on our reading list but A Handful of Dust did not meet my expectations at all. As one of the previous reviewers stated it is really only worth being read as a classroom assignment but never worth being read for personal entertainment. The beginning is clumsy and stretched and although the middle part is entertaining at some place it's still boring on the whole. From the point on when Tony sets foot on Brazil ground you can forget about reading on. Nothing of any value to the reader happens, the plot becomes not only even more boring but terribly far fetched and I'm sorry to say that I don't think the irony or satire whatsoever intended comes across.

Rating:
Summary: Smashing & Brutal Satire of England's Idle & Shallow Rich!
Review: I admit I'm new to Mr. Waugh,but no doubt he was among the greatest prose fiction satirists of all time! This beautifully written novel is and will always remain a classic, and is a real page turner even though there's no mystery or suspense. Every line is a gem, from the architectural descriptions to the cutting dialogue. In this world practically everyone is a useful ornament for someone else, afternoon luncheons and evening parties are about the only thing of note, and children are there to be looked after by the servants. In this book, the most likable character is indeed the young boy, who is completely frustrated and bewildered by nearly all the "grown-ups" he meets.And the final trip to the "lost city" in South America, with the truly bizarre Dickens buff, neatly concludes this grand slam of a book!

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: I am not going to delve deep beneath the surface and use big terms to describe what happens in "A Handful of Dust" because, not only am I unfit for such a task, I also don't think it's necessary. The reason this book is so brilliant (and so important) is that Waugh takes everything we should ideally consider to be valuable and makes them seem worthless to his characters. Common beliefs that relationships, honesty, and compassion should be revered are undermined by having his characters place importance on inferior things like material possessions. I think the most stunning part of the book is when one of the main characters is killed and all the other peripheral characters react in a way that made me want to throw the book against the wall because of how utterly repulsive they were in reacting to it. Sadly, Waugh makes their reactions seem believable
Waugh is astonishing because he shaves off all excessive material and puts his finger precisely on the topic he wants to explore - and is relentless in magnifying this desired topic. In this case, maybe he is warning his readers that if our morals don't improve, we could all soon be acting as disgustingly as the characters in "A Handful of Dust" do. A masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Not his best by far
Review: I have read "Brideshead Revisited" and admired it greatly. I thought the characters complex and the insights into English society so lucid and complete that I felt that I could understand their motivations and wants.

However "A Handful of Dust" is much more opaque. The characters are loathsome, without any redeeming qualities usually present in his other books. The book is sardonic and dry to the point of being sere. It is so arch that it becomes wearisome, a farce of malice and well-written cruelty.

As usual the ending is anti-climactic, another flawed tying-up of loose ends. Waugh, though entertaining, is not one of the century's great novelists.