I was unable to enjoy this novel. Whether reading The Fountainhead previously had anything to do with my apathy, I can't say. I have an inkling that I wouldn't have liked it regardless. (If you're wondering, I gave up on The Blind Assassin long ago. Maybe I'll pick it back up one of these days.)
Brideshead Revisited is sort of your typical aristocratic - circa 1930's-social drama: The characters are just plain disenchanting. Charles Ryder, the protagonist, narrates his 20 year-attachment to the Flyte family, who inhabit Brideshead, beginning with Sebastian, his Oxford schoolmate.
Sebastian, a weeny-ish rich boy, introduces Charles to his family after much unwillingness. The boys' relationship is hard to define: it's verging on romantic, but supposedly they have a platonic friendship. Even a prostitute accuses them of being "fairies." They're both a little too friends-for-no-good-reason, if you ask me, but I suppose there are plenty of rich kids who have zero meaningful relationships. So, alas! When Sebastian spirals into alcoholic turmoil, who is Charles there for? Nope. Not his self-proclaimed best friend. (Granted, alcoholics are a pain in the ass to deal with). Instead of helping his friend, Charles just gets chummy with his family, who don't do anything to stop the self-destruction. They opt for the easy way out: sending him booze money every month and hoping he snaps out of it. By the second half of the book, Sebastian is basically an apparition.
After Sebastian disappears, Charles parts with the family for a brief time but picks back up with Julia, Sebastian's sister. Go figure. Apparently he hadn't found her attractive before but suddenly does ten years later. They are both conveniently on the same trans-atlantic cruise and, because nobody else more intriguing is on-board, they decide they love each other. Supposedly their relationship is really meaningful like Charles and Sebastian's WAS (is that possible?), so accordingly they cheat on their respective spouses for each other and end their relationship as easily and randomly as it began. Dang those religious differences. I mean, they've only known each other twenty years by the end of the book. You'd think they would have figured out each other's beliefs by then.
Basically, Charles is spewing about how strongly he feels about the Flyte family, while he fails to give us a legitimate reason why. The whole meat of the book is unsubstantial, making it impossible for me, and others most likely, to appreciate.
