A
Handful of Dust was my random choice for 2020 re-reading challenge out of many novels by Evelyn
Waugh, although I probably read more of them than my friends, and
definitely more than my parents and their friends, because I could
read them in English. Inexplicably, Waugh's novels in paperback were
sold among a handful – no pun intended – English-language books
in a major bookstore in Moscow. The price was 5 or 6 rubles – my
salary was 100 rubles (for comparison: a kilo beef was 2 rubles; a
pair of tights was 10 rubles). I bought as many books as were
available, maybe spending a month's salary. That's what you did. The
reason those paperbacks made their way into Russia was that a couple
of Waugh's novels had been translated into Russian, including
A
Handful of Dust. In a handbook
of British literature, written by an esteemed Russian scholar, Waugh
was presented as ultra-reactionary, so it is surprising he was
translated at all, but there was never any logic behind what was or
wasn't acceptable.
I
remembered merely one detail from the book, which I also believed
happened in a totally different book. A young boy is learning to ride
a pony and gets kicked off. His coach tells him it happened because
he ”opened his bloody legs and cut an arser”. The boy dutifully
reports this to his parents. This was the first time a rude word was
published in a Russian book, and my father was delighted. He read it
outloud for my mother and me, and later to several guests. Maybe this
is why I remembered this particular episode, because I didn't
remember anything else, and it didn't come back as I was reading. So
I can almost say I had never read this book before.
It
is one of those books where all characters are repulsive, but unlike
many books with repulsive characters I was curious about them and
wanted to get to know them better. Against all my convictions as a
reader, I wished I could warn them: Don't be a fool, stop doing this!
I wished I could change their destinies.
My
scholarly self prompts that Waugh's sarcastic writing goes back to
Jane Austen, although he would probably deny it. Anyway, the book is
brilliantly written, and I may re-read it again soon. Warmly
recommended.
