A Handful of Dust

Evelyn Waugh, 1934 Date Read: 6/17/22

You'd think this was a Stephen King novel, because it was great up until the ending. Endings, plural, because it comes with two alternatives. I didn't like either.

Essentially, this novel is Madame Bovary without the Victorian melodrama. As I said in my review of that novel. my first husband was (often and enthusiastically) unfaithful. Despite being a pathological liar, he isn't very good at hiding his adultery. So my feelings on unfaithful partners in novels is greatly, hugely, massively colored by this fact.

Brenda Last is exactly the same kind of self-absorbed moron as Madame Bovary (and my ex) and I have no sympathy for her at all. Tony Last is a lovely man who really didn't deserve all Waugh did to him in this novel.

In the first ending, Tony is essentially kidnapped in the Brazilian jungle and dies. Brenda is left penniless and Tony's cousins inherit the family home. In the second ending, Tony and Brenda "reconcile" in that way the upper crust has of just pretending nothing ever happened whilst subtly tormenting each other for the rest of their lives. Both of these endings suck. What should have happened, is Tony should have divorced Brenda and married a lovely woman who appreciated him and lived happily ever after. Brenda should have gone like Mildred in Of Human Bondage and died of syphilis after working as a prostitute.

Also, I'd like to mention John Andrew, Tony and Brenda's son, who dies around age 10 of a freak accident involving a motor vehicle. My best friend died at age 9 of a freak accident involving a motor vehicle, and I am amazed how often that is used as a trope in novels.

Length: 225 pages (Everyman's Library edition)

ReReadability: I really didn't like the endings, so no

Classic: it is beautifully written and illustrates a time and a place very well; therefore, I would say yes.