Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh. (Originally Published in 1930. The Edition: Penguin Classics 1996) This book is a very slow and hard read.  I found that there was no point in reading it, and that it was just all around pointless.  **SPOILERS AHEAD**

The story surrounds Adam Fenwick-Symes.  At least, I think it does.  Well. By the end after the beginning on the train it starts to surround Adam's life.  The very beginning was very confusing.  I didn't understand why Mrs. Ape was in the story at all, or the "angels".   The names Faith, Charity, Fortitude, Chastity, Humility, Prudence, Divine Discontent, Mercy, Justice, and Creative Endeavour were odd.  But so were many of the other names in this story.  Like Mr Outrage, Lady Throbbing, and Mr Chatterbox to name a few.  (Yes, I realize that Mr Chatterbox was just a name that what-ever writer at the time wrote under for the newspaper.)  I think that the amount of names, and oddity of the names made me turned off from the story itself.  But I tried to give it a chance.

It wasn't worth it.  It was only written about all these young people going to parties and following their lives, and had no plot line.  Except maybe the on-and-off again engagement between Adam and Nina Blout.  That was the only thing that was consistent, until the end where she ends up marrying Ginger and pretty much has an affair with Adam while he works.  Well, that's what I thought.  Maybe they didn't have an affair, but it was at the end that I really thought they did because she says something in her letter to Adam along the lines of "Ginger has quite made up his mind that it is his"(186).  Who knows.

The one character that I did like was Miss Runcible.  She was funny and was one of those people that are always in the newspaper, either good or bad.  And then Waugh killed her off.  At first he made her crazy and then killed her off.  Upsetting!  I kind of secretly wanted her to end up with Adam after he found out about Nina and Ginger's engagement, but it didn't happen.  She just ended up getting more crazy.  The one thing that bothered me about her death was the way they just nonchalantly say "Did I tell you I went to Agatha's funeral?" (177).  Like really? That's all that you can say?  I mean I should have known that Waugh would just leave the death alone after meeting Simon for maybe ten pages before he ends up dying, NOT killing himself.  It's just frustrating when deaths like that happen.  Sometimes I wish for closure more than suspense.

I would never want to read this again.  Because I did not like it and if there is a point, which there isn't, I don't see it.  Or a moral.  Or a meaning.  There's nothing but words there, that are constantly repeating themselves, which has to have some point, but it was just slow and long.  My advise if you are going to read this, make sure you are in the most uncomfortable positions or chairs then read it.  You are bound to stay awake than.

Happy Reading!