A Handful of Dust

Waugh's portrait of the end of a marriage shocked me. It starts as a silly book about spoiled aristocratic society types, but takes a really sudden turn for the serious, and became for me a deeply moving portrait of alienation and loss. I have rarely read something that changed course so dramatically. Or at least I've rarely had my perception of a work shift so radically. I was expecting satire, but was blindsided with pathos. I found it to be really pitiful in the purest sense: I was overwhelmed with pity for its characters.

Noted on May 20, 2012