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Marco

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Marco is Currently Reading

Marco rated a book it was amazing

Brideshead Revisited

by Evelyn Waugh

bookshelves: 2024, favs, own, maadi, reviewed, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in September 2024

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Marco said: " I'm not the type to write reviews; however, it bothered me quite a lot that there are so few five star reviews for a book I'm so very fond of. It's also been a while since I've read it, so I won't be able to write a detailed "review" (not that I know I'm not the type to write reviews; however, it bothered me quite a lot that there are so few five star reviews for a book I'm so very fond of. It's also been a while since I've read it, so I won't be able to write a detailed "review" (not that I know how to write a proper review in the first place), but in any case, to those considering reading it...

Brideshead Revisited is beautiful book —set in Oxford (for the first few chapters, at least) and spanning several years, it discusses a range of things, whether it's (generational) escapism, alcoholism, love in all its different forms, grappling with maturity, or a having a messy relationship with religion.
However, I'd consider the book to mostly be a discussion of suffering —all the different types of suffering people face, and *how* one should bear suffering in a seemingly meaningless world filled with so much of it.

Many call it a "Catholic novel", but it's as "Catholic" as Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment is "Orthodox" —which is to say, yes, to some degree, but not totally. Having a slight familiarity with the thought of Augustine of Hippo may help you appreciate some of the book's more implicit themes, though.

The prose is a bit pretentious at times, but I'm personally fond of it.

In the end, I'd definitely say it's my "second favourite book", but only because it would be masochistic to consider a book that shattered my heart, as much as it did, my *most* favourite.

However, I do acknowledge that I also appreciate it as much as I do because reading it coincided with events in my life that paralleled the book in a way that comforted me and made me feel seen. It isn't a book that would suit everyone's taste, and I definitely wouldn't recommend it to everyone I know; many just wouldn't "get it", not out of any fault of their own, of course —it just isn't written *for* them.

That's all I have to say (and all I remember), so if you're skimming the reviews wondering whether to read it, here's a voice amid the hundreds, urging you to give it a go.

In any case, here are two passages from Augustine's Confessions I think summarise the book, to some degree:

"You made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You"

"Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace." ...more "

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— Feb 17, 2026 02:48AM

Feb 17, 2026 02:48AM · see review

Marco’s Quotes

“Let us find the dam snack bar," Zoe said. "We should eat while we can."
Grover cracked a smile. "The dam snack bar?"
Zoe blinked. "Yes. What is funny?"
"Nothing," Grover said, trying to keep a straight face. "I could use some dam french fries."
Even Thalia smiled at that. "And I need to use the dam restroom."
...
I started cracking up, and Thalia and Grover joined in, while Zoe just looked at me. "I do not understand."
"I want to use the dam water fountain," Grover said.
"And..." Thalia tried to catch her breath. "I want to buy a dam t-shirt.”
― Rick Riordan, The Titan’s Curse

tags: humor

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