The Fatal Gift : A novel - Softcover

1013...the writing is expert; Waugh (brother of the far-more-famous Evelyn Waugh) had been a novelist for more than fifty years when he wrote it. With complete naturalness he puts himself, as well as his brother and their real (and often prominent) friends in the book as characters; the narrator's life is, more or less, Alec Waugh's actual life. But the central character, Raymond Peronne, is invented. He is the recipient of the "fatal gift"--but what is that gift? More than physical beauty, Raymond has intelligence, poise, good feelings towards everyone, supreme self-confidence (without any haughtiness). As the second son of a baron, he thinks (and his father thinks) he won't inherit and have to serve in the House of Lords, so, in a certain way, the world is his. Everyone expects great things from this multiply-gifted and likeable man. Instead of rising to his expected prominence in England, he seems to fall in love with the British island of Dominique,in the West Indies--and the island is, perhaps, the true love of his life. Even more fascinating, Waugh examines the all-important question: What comprises the value of a life? You won't know the answer to this question till the final pages. This novel is written by a master. If, like me, you read even Anna Karenina thinking, "This is about as deep an explanation about what life adds up to as a man at Tolstoy's stage in life could write," you may be hungry to find those rare superb novels written by people who are older than Tolstoy was when he created Levin, and hence know even more. Waugh doesn't derive his answer, as his brother might, from any theology, but from his pragmatic and varied experience in the ways of the world. [READER REVIEW]