![]() ![]() I’m hoping other Evelyn Waugh novels don’t follow the same pattern. It felt like I was reading an abridgment. The vagueness and lack of emotion were definitely the biggest disappointments of the book for me. Extremely slow-paced for a book that skips over and is vague about so much.Having the story take place from childhood to old age.The exploration of a saint whose life has little history available.It’s left me curious to read a few of Evelyn Waugh’s other novels. While I didn’t love this as much as I’d hoped I would, it was still an interesting read. Despite being titled for the main character, we don’t get to see a lot of internalization or depth to Helena. The time often jumps to another mid-chapter with little to no explanation of how someone or something gets from A to Z. But that one, Helena, is very good despite a number of peculiarities and shortcomings. In fact I have read only one of his books. I really love the concept of this book, but the writing falls flat for me. Helena by Evelyn Waugh By John Loranger 1364 Evelyn Waugh is probably best known for his 1945 novel, Brideshead Revisited which I have never read. Much later in her life, she sets out to find the relics of the Holy Cross. Here, we imagine her as a young girl and follow her journey into marriage and royalty, motherhood, and later her conversion to Christianity through the influence of her son Constantine. ![]() The author stresses at the beginning of the book that this is very much a fictionalized take on Empress/Saint Helena pointing out that not much is known about her life. Helena by name but didn’t know much about her story. Helena piqued my interest the most given the subject matter and a line that was quoted. I hadn’t heard of Evelyn Waugh or any of his books until a couple of them were mentioned during a homily. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |