Vile Bodies Paperback by Evelyn Waugh (Back Bay Books)

In the years following the First World War a new generation emerged, wistful and vulnerable beneath the glitter. The Bright Young Things of 1920s London, with their paradoxical mix of innocence and sophistication, exercised their inventive minds and vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade. In these pages a vivid assortment of characters, among them the struggling writer Adam Fenwick-Symes and the glamorous, aristocratic Nina Blount, hunt fast and furiously for ever greater sensations and the hedonistic fulfillment of their desires. Evelyn Waugh's acidly funny satire reveals the darkness and vulnerability beneath the sparkling surface of the high life.

Though I rarely review books by classic authors who have no need of my support (or lack of) to make their reputations, I sometimes bend my rule for books that might be lesser known in an author's oeuvre. So, admittedly as a fan of Waugh, I'm going to take the time to write a few lines about Vile Bodies.

This is not one of my favorite Waugh novels. There is no plot to speak of. This book is really just a sequence of scenes that are meant to poke fun at the rich & foolish of post-WWI England; mainly, the "Bright Young Things". Though I'm sure this book was quite a riot in its day, I feel that it has aged less well than much of Waugh's work. This is also reflected in the use of what would be considered very un-PC language today. (Though, admittedly, the use of un-PC language doesn't really bother me personally.)

That being said, there's no denying that Waugh is a very funny writer and that there are plenty of laughs still to be had here. Waugh's dialogue in this novel really pops with energy. There are set pieces that can still speak to us--the couple whose state of engagement changes on an hourly basis, the writer who makes up his articles wholesale, the religious proselytizers who don't practice what they preach. In fact, there are a whole slew of ridiculous characters here which each have a moment or two in the sun.

Whatever its deficiencies, there's a reason some writers have their books still read over 80 years after they are first published: the worst book of a great author is better than most of the books out there. And I wouldn't say this is Waugh's worst. It's definitely worth a read.