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I finished the book about a week ago and although much of it was read through a bit of post-surgery Percocet haze I think I really enjoyed the book. It’s the only Waugh book I’ve read and the beautiful writing has certainly motivated me to seek out a few other titles for future reading.
I wish I could write a little more, but I’m limited to one hand for at least a couple more weeks.
The Flyte family’s relationship to the Catholic church has been called an “addiction” in previous posts. I can’t agree with this at all. I think Waugh makes a good separation between the adherence to superstitions and being a slave to addiction. Sebastian’s relationship to alcohol is an addiction. It serves no good purpose in his life and keeps him from being the person all those who love him can envision him being. Charles never attempts to use logic with Sebastian to move him away from his addiction, but he does attempt to use logic as a means to move the Flyte’s away from believing that their religion actually has any power.
I think Charles’s conversion comes not because he’s now convinced that adherence to the ritual of religion brings about direct divine intervention, but that it has some very real comforting power in that the family have their belief in common. I think his own disjointed family relationships, particularly with his father, has something to do with his desire for belonging and Catholicism at least seems to offer that to the Flytes and perhaps to him as well. This would also make sense regarding Waugh’s own conversion. Someone has commented that he maintained support for the mass being performed in Latin. That may indicate a support for the comfort of tradition and universality the Latin mass represents as opposed to providing opportunity for deeper individual understanding of the pragmatics of the mass.
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