Brideshead Revisited

English novels seem to me to have a similar feel to them (a huge generalization, for sure)!  In this best-selling book (in its time), we go back to the war days of WWI and WWII, though not much about the war, but the intricacies of relationships, religion, and facing our demons.  Brideshead Revisited  by Evelyn Waugh was published in 1945.  The lead character, the voice of our narrator Charles Ryder, who is studying at Hertford College at Oxford University, meets and befriends Sebastian Flyte, the son of a wealthy family.  Flyte seemingly has strong feelings for Charles (homosexual overtones, though hard to figure out completely) early in the book until it appears Charles has eyes for his sister Julia.  The story revolves around the three characters growing apart after their initial time at Brideshead.  Sebastian heads to Morocco and falls into alcoholism, though near the end of his life he turns to a monastery and finds some solace in life.  Julia and Charles marry others and realize that their marriages aren’t based on the love that they find in each other after all these years.  But as a subplot throughout is the role of faith, Catholicism, plays in the lives of the three, Julia and Sebastian as growing up Catholic and Charles – a non-believer who loses out to Julia in the end because of her inability to re-marry (in part because of her faith).  The story is much more complicated with the family upbringing of Charles without a mother, and the Catholic issues with Sebastian & Julia’s parents, especially the last scene where their father is given his last rites and he comes back to the church (after leaving for a time), hence Julia’s response to Charles.  Brideshead is revisited at the very end by Charles at the conclusion of WWII (years later) in a scene that makes one think has he been called by God back to this place?   Characters are believable during this time of war and questioning of whether there is a God, a sign of the time.  Good depth and lots of sub issues that create a complication of understanding some of the real messages here.  Need to pay attention to the details as the author may be telling us one thing, or not?  Not the best book, but worth a read.