This is such a lovely paperback, and I hate to part with it! But it was purchased at a Borders in Clearwater, Florida, during their going out of business sale, and that was about five years ago now. It has been gathering dust on my shelf ever since. Time to stop this hoarding behavior.

I have flagged this to read on Kindle so I can let this copy go. It is now traveling in my Fiction and Literature bookbox.

Chosen from flewry's Fiction and Literature bookbox

A fascinating book, and I'm very grateful to flewry for giving me the opportunity to read it. I read it twice, separated by a few weeks, and got a lot more out of it the second time. I look forward to reading it again in the future, but flewry and I are lucky enough to have a glorious library system to supply us, and can afford to share outstanding books like this with others.

The first, and longer, section portrays the happy life of Britain's upper classes, and their attempts to avoid change. The second deals with facing the end of life, and religious issues. I enjoyed the first section more, but the second was quite moving.

The writing is as smooth and irresistible as Nutella (or whatever is your passion). The story of Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte's family moves forward with leisurely grace, with occasional pauses for bits of irony: the bitchy name-dropping gossip's monologue, Charles' skirmishes with his father, etc, all very British. The one surprise was the brash parvenu who wants to marry Julia Flyte. Usually English authors have no trouble making this kind of character an American, but here he is Canadian. I can't help wondering why?

I strongly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys thoughtful, well-written literature. I also see our magnificent library has two video adaptions, so I may watch one (or both) and add comments about them to this journal.

So that's one person's opinion. Future readers, what do YOU think?

On little bookshelf in donor waiting area.