Twenty-twenty

The 1920s is a decade full of rich imagery, ideas and history. The Jazz Age, the Roaring Twenties, the post-Great War lost generation, whatever you want to call it. A time of high society, lavish parties, changing tastes and mores, laxer morals, economic prosperity, consumer culture, popular culture and in some ways the first 'modern' decade. (What do I mean by the last point? I don't really know, a bit of all the above, but it sounds good so I'll forgive myself). It's a period that I've become really interested in lately and despite the parallels with the 80s, I doubt that after another half century that decade will be looked back on quite so fondly.

Anyway, the 20s is the period of Aldous Huxley's debut novel, Crome Yellow. Best known for Brave New World and his later more politicised and dystopian works, his earlier writings were concerned with the society he found himself in, sending it up. Think Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, or to a lesser extent F. Scott Fitzgerald's canon. Having studied Brave New World a scary number of years ago at school and really enjoyed it, I was all set for something good.

I was, however, disappointed to be honest. It just didn't sparkle the way I had hoped it would. Some of the set pieces were amusing, but none of the characters really grabbed me and not a lot happened. Not that much needed to happen (and this isn't generally a complaint you'll here mee make, there are plenty of books I love where not much 'happens'), but it left me wondering slightly what might have been rather than what actually was. Sure, the characters have obvious and necessary flaws and it pokes fun various things, but either it was too subtle for me to grasp or perhaps a little too blunt. It wasn't bad, the writing is undoubtedly good, it just passed me by without leaving much of an impression. Maybe I missed something, and maybe I had high expectations that could only leave me heading for a fall, but it wasn't the book I was hoping for.

Book number: 47
Title: Crome Yellow
Author: Aldous Huxley
Category: Books with colours in the title