Spotted in a charity shop and I just could not resist picking it up.

The story is set in the 1920's when two boys, Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte, become friends at University in Oxford. When Charles is invited to stay with Sebastain's family for the holidays he finds himself embroiled in that families tribulations not just in the present but the future also with profound ramifications for both.

Now I initially believed that it was going to be one about homosexual desires and perhaps unrequitted love, and there are certainly some subtle unsaid elements of this, it soon became clear that there was more to it than that. I mean Sebastian becomes a lush and virtually disappears out of the story altogether. Then Charles has an affair with Sebastain's sister Julia culminating with both of them getting divorced from their respective spouses and all the time Charles is being drawn ever deeper into the family's religious strife, for Sebastian's family are staunchly Catholic whilst Charles in agnostic. The story becomes about how he will never be truly accepted into Sebastian's and Julia's family circle because of these religious differances.

Unfortunately this is where the book rather lost me. I enjoyed the early part of the book about the drunken antics of young University students and in particularily loved the highly amusing oneupmanship between Charles and his own father but then the final third chiefly centres on the values of marriage, morals and sins within Catholic families, Lord Marchmain's long illness and eventual death feels more of a Catholic wishlist rather than anything else. Whilst I could see how the author had no doubt struggled with his own spirituality I came to not really care about anything that happened to any of the Flytes, probably because I share Charles's view of religion.

That said I enjoyed Waugh's writing style, in particular the comedic elements, and found it interesting that just as Charles star seemed to shine brightly as a painter the Flytes' own seemed to be on the wane with mirroring how 'new' money was replacing 'old' in Britain during the in-between Wars years.

Overall, a good read but one that failed to really grip me.

Spotted this on a wishlist so being sent out as a RABCK. Enjoy!

Wow! Thank you so much for sending me 2 wishlist books :-) I have a few bookrings to read before I can get stuck into these but thanks again! Sorry it took me a while to journal, I have been a bit slack with my BookCrossing duties recently :-( if you see any books on my bookshelf I may be able to send onto you (if it's not reserved, etc) so just let me know! And thanks for your lovely little note, a belated Happy New Year to you and yours!

Had too many books on my TBR pile and am moving house so had a clear out. Safe travels little book!