I tried reading Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall – but I just couldnt bring myself to finish it.

I keep running across Waugh’s name when reading about other authors I’ve liked, or in passing in relation to books I’ve read.

Everything was so negative and sardonic, I had to give it up.

And while I can appreciate and laugh at tragi-comedic circumstances, I didn’t even chuckle after many chapters. Nothing seemed particularly set up to be funny, despite the ‘laugh out loud’ comments I’ve heard from other readers.

To me, it seethed of contempt and mockery, with a veneer of the author trying to be funny.

The next time I look for more meaty beach book, with some literary gravitas, set in the environs of upper-crust England, and noted for humor, I think I’ll try Wodehouse.