A Good Book

When the mind is too worn from the week's cares and the day's troubles to want to tackle a book that requires work, but not quite so smoothly worn as to give up all pretense of thoughtfulness and turn on the television, there are a few authors whose works are ideal, and Waugh is at the top of the list. It might seem pretentious to title your first novel "Decline and Fall", and perhaps it was, but when your whole point is to ridicule the pretentiousness of the upper strata of your society and bring light to its rotten core, maybe it's a good choice. It IS pretty pretentious to write such a book at all, unless you can pull it off with Waugh's sense of humor. He makes you cynical about his character's cynicism; perhaps that's why he reads well in 2009.

Thanks to this book I have a new classification system for all my books. Early in the story, when Mr. Paul Pennyfeather, an orphan who's just been kicked out of college for a morals offense ("sent down for indecent behavior" was the term of the day) for which he seems not entirely responsible, has been cut off by his caretaker and is applying for teaching jobs, the placement agent describes his ranking system for schools:

1. Leading School
2. First-rate School
3. Good School
4. School

Paul has been given an assignment at a "School". "'Frankly,' said [the agent], 'School is pretty bad. I think you'll find it a very suitable post.'"

[As an aside, I note that this ranking system is suspiciously similar to that devised by the Duke of Cumberland's army for Scottish prisoners following the Battle of Culloden in 1745 (see recent reviews):

1. Really gentlemen
2. Not properly gentlemen but above the rank of Common Men
3. A lower degree than the preceding
4. Common Men

Perhaps the somewhat arbitrary four-tier system is common in English tradition?]

So, henceforth, I shall rank all books reviewed by the following classifications:

1. A classic
2. A good book
3. Not a bad book
4. Just a book

Happy reading!