Vile Bodies

Having read, and loved, Brideshead Revisited, I decided to read one of Waugh's earlier novels, namely Vile Bodies. Set in the 1920's amongst the so-called ‘Bright Young Things' the book follows various characters as they flit about London society with seemingly not a care in the world for anyone but themselves. The opening of the book can seem quite off putting with it's short staccato paragraphs and odd collection of names as they travel back to England from the continent aboard a boat caught in bad weather. But after a couple of chapters Vile Bodies settles down into an enjoyable black comedy. There's a sadness running through the book though, as if Waugh knew this was a generation doomed to live for living sake after the horrors of the First World War, without caring what happened to them or the world around them. Waugh's pre-war book are very different to the post-war ones, more comic in tone. But I enjoyed Vile Bodies and will probably cherry pick from his back catalogue.