Put Out More Flags Audiobook

" i left this book on the train today, with 50 pages to go. so have i read it? mostly. will i finish it? not until fate sends another used copy my way, but i read enough to look forward to reading more of evelyn waugh: measured and urbane, with a knack for sparkling dialogue-- and it all feels surprisingly hip and ridiculously relevant given that it's a book written in the late 40s about late 30s. "

" Second tier Waugh: not quite with Brideshead and Sword of Honour, but the equal of Vile Bodies, and very much like the latter. Not much narrative really, but an extraordinary portrait of human foibles, tinged with melancholy. I don't think anyone does that better. "

" Droll comedy that veers effortlessly into pathos and back to comedy again. I'm starting to think that Waugh never wrote a dull sentence. "

" I bogged down in The Waves; I bogged down in The House of Mirth (obviously Miss Bart is headed for no good end and I don't have the heart for it), and I didn't even want to try re-reading Light in August, so I picked up this Waugh novel. It also was lying around my bedroom. It was not as earnest as Woolf or Wharton or Faulkner, but I think Wharton or Faulkner might have been cheerier. "

" This novel is almost fantastic. Most of the characters are vibrant and eccentric (my favourite type of character!), the dry and scathing wit is a pleasure to read, and the prose is occasionally shocking in its beauty. However, I feel as though Evelyn Waugh didn't quite finish Put Out More Flags... as if the novel has yet to be reviewed and edited by its author. I found the ending unsatisfactorily inconclusive, with many of the complex threads that Mr Waugh had woven throughout the novel left only partly tied. At times the story lags, boring me a little, but the potential is there; I believe that Mr Waugh must have been a great writer, but that he did not make full use of his talent when writing this novel. Overall, my favourite component of Put Out More Flags is the characters, especially the ridiculous poets, Parsnip and Pimpernell; the wonderfully cynical Ambrose Silk, and the hipster set of youthful and artistic pro-communists (who remind me very much of some people I know). I am sure that I shall read more of Evelyn Waugh, but perhaps this was not the best place to start. "

" I love evelyn waugh...this is one of the best... "

" one of those funny and bittersweet books that seems like the perfect portrait of a group of people at a particular moment in history, or that just too much PBS talking? "

" I love everything Evelyn Waugh wrote and this book is surely one of his best. I also found it interesting to read a book about WWII written while the war was still going on. As with all of his books, this is witty and funny and serious and sad. "

" A look at how communist intellectuals and the upper crust handle the outbreak of WWII. Hilarious yet serious, as good satire should be. "

" Supposed to be funny - I just didn't get it. "

" Humor and sorrow as WWII breaks out. "

" One of the most neglected pieces of satire in the 20th century. This book is hilarious and cringe-inducing, often at the same time. The writing and the structure are perfect: Waugh at his satiric best. "

" Preferred Brideshead Revisited and The Loved One. "

" Oh, Basil Seal, what will you get up to next... "

" As good as Catch-22... "

" This is the first Waugh book I've read. I'm not sure what the hubbub is about. "

" If Waugh wrote it - read it! "

" Hilarious. Bought it for 1 EURO, read it in 1 day. "

" A fairly damning account of the upper-crust in England as they get all dressed up to go out to fight WWII. Not nearly as funny as "Scoop". "

" I suspect Basil Seal and Bertie Wooster are two versions of the same person. Bertie is the one that shows up in stories for polite company; Basil is the one that shows up in court transcripts. "

" Quite good but not my favorite. "