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booknookTitle: A Handful of Dust
Author: Evelyn Waugh
Genre: Satire
Content Warnings: Racism, including slurs and native savage stereotypes.
A Handful of Dust is a social satire originally published in the 1930s by Evelyn Waugh. The plot revolves an affair that Brenda Last has with John Beaver, as Brenda's husband Tony is completely oblivious and all of their society friends look on.
With one massive caveat I enjoyed it a lot. It's a caustic satire and on a superficial level fits neatly into the genre of Everyone Fucking Sucks. The absurdity of the plot and the playful way that Waugh lets the characters represent themselves as reasonable while the reader thinks, nah, you also suck, elevates it from that cliche.
Big Ending Spoiler here
And then there's the ending. WTF was that ending? Again, spoilers for a 90+ year old book, but in the end Tony finds himself at the edge of death and disaster multiple times while being led deeper into the wilderness by someone who has no right to be leading anything. I was on the edge of my seat wondering how they’d fare, if the disease would kill him, or the constantly provoked locals, or some thing else entirely, and every time it seemed like things were getting better they’d just get worse, until in the end he stumbles, delirious with fever, into a literal horror scenario and becomes the permanent captive of a fucked up European who tricks a rescue party into thinking Tony is dead so that he will stay forever and read him Dickens. The implication in the end is that he ends up dying there, eventually, but perhaps of old age 30 years into the future, who knows.
I read this book while on a plane, and the last few scenes had me worked up enough that I was dying to get up and pace and couldn’t, which compounded the emotional reaction. I desperately wanted to turn to the person sitting next to me and ask, "Have you read this book, and if so, can we please commiserate about the ending?" But I did not do this and instead stewed in place. I felt like I was simply out of the habit of reading books that do not get tied up in the way that feels obligatory for genre fiction.
I will admit that I have a strong stomach for the bigotry that permeated literature from this time period. It also helps (???) that for the most part, you don't get jump scared with the blunt stuff until the very end of the story. I haven't read any other Waugh to know if this is one of his best as the introduction says, but I would say that it was better than 90% of what I end up reading nowadays.
(This is also crossposted on my blog)
renay posting in ladybusinessdrabblewriter posting in allbingosenmutconulyffuturescosmolinguistThe weather has been overcast and wet the last few days. But the strawberries still know that June is here.
Yesterday aft3rnoon V was outside inspecting the garden (as they do every day) and said the strawberries were a few hours away from being ripe.
And later, long after I'd forgotten they said this, they went out again and when they came back and handed me one red strawberry.
I ate it, delightedly. Well, I took a picture of it and then ate it. First Strawberry Day is like a holiday for me.
Today, when I was mired in work, they came in with a paper towel in their hand, which held another strawberry.
I told them I hoped they were getting some too. But only after I'd grabbed this one as well, heh. They said they hadn't yet.
I'm a little sheepish that my excitement about strawberries is so great that I am getting all the earliest fruits of their labor! But I know soon that there will be more of them in the fridge than any of us eat before more come along to join them.
vivdunstanvivdunstan
james_davis_nicoll
ffutures 
pauamma posting in dw_develisigirlpire: Prophecy Girl Buffy, 1997silverusagi has a whole 'verse:ilanarama
denise in dw_maintenance - (no subject)got_quiet in booknook - Book Review: A Handful of Dustysabetwordsmith in fandomcalendar - June Bingo Festysabetwordsmith in fandomcalendar - Creative Jamrenay in ladybusiness - Let's Get Literate! Platform Decay by Martha Wellsdrabblewriter in allbingo - 🏳️🌈 Pride Fest - June 1st to 30th 🏳️🌈senmut - June 1 - Ask me Anythingconuly - Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millayffutures - A Very Tasty World, Mister Cornelius...cosmolinguist - The most wonderful time of the yearvivdunstan - Whether to make somewhere fictional or notvivdunstan - Micromaniajames_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: Brancalonia (from 2024) & Brancalonia Bountyrydra_wong - Mass lobby date changeffutures - Two Fantasy Bundles, one New - Brancaloniapauamma in dw_dev - Question thread #151pauamma in dw_volunteers - Volunteer social thread #164elisi - Miscilanarama - Croatia part 2: Šipan, Mljet, Korčulashivver - Is this the end?dancing_serpent
