Vile Bodies - post III

There is a shift in the book that is after you read the introduction influenced by real events, that turns it from gaiety to bitterness. Adam finds that his fiancé has fallen in love with another man who has more riches than himself and from that point on the book moves towards its ending on a battlefield with the guns booming.

Several times in the text Adam remarks to Nina that he feels it all has to stop at some point and as he chases the drunk major who tells him that he has £35,000 waiting for him if he could only manage to get round to collecting it the fun drains out of life. Another of the characters is involved in a car crash and as she slowly loses her reason all her friends can do it party in her hospital room and hurry on her demise. There is something intended by the title and at the end the shallow and ultimately hurtful world of those vile but beautiful; young things has been well and truly punctured by Waugh.

A review will follow shortly…