Brideshead revisited aka Aristocracy revisited aka WWII revisited aka religion revisited aka innocence revisited

After reading orlando, I wanted an easy go book. Brideshead revisited has been consistently recommended by seasoned as well as young readers. So I took it up and let me be frank that I was a tad surprised by the breadth of coverage in the book. The writing is easy paced and the vocabulary requirements are standard.

The book starts interestingly in world war 2 and goes back and forth. Reliving the nostalgic memories brings in the book brings back your own as you go through the book. The characters are relatable. Yes, we dont have as many aristocratic families as in the good old time. We still do have pretty rich families wherein a similar pattern is observed. The camaraderie between two friends is brought out beautifully. In fact this is the portion I like immensely. The character build up of the two friends is fantastic and this makes all the situations which will be shown to us in the future believable and rooted in human relationships.

The expectation of a family from your near and dear friends is one more aspect which is brought out nicely. Each family is selfish in the fact that they see what the friend can bring or do to make their sibling better at the expense of not understanding the friend and his needs. The other thing is as the characters grow up, we see the maturity and the different views they have on life get concrete and they run after worldly pursuits. Only when the characters pause in their life and think about their experiences do they feel the right or wrong they did.

Alcoholism is again shown as it should be. When you are drunk you might feel better but when you wake up you are deeper in sorrow and you go so deep that nobody can dig you out. Religion is queried enough. The right questions asked with no right answers.

Love is complicated.