Decline of the Water Babies

I think I have finished Waugh, which is sort of exciting. Generally, anytime I finish an author's canon (or at least what they have on the list if they have more than two) it is exciting. With Waugh, there is an added piece of excitement, since reading so many of his becomes a bit repetitive. This actually reflects one of my criticisms of the list. For many of these authors, once you've read two or three you get it; you need not read every Dickens and Austen to have a pretty good sense what every other Dickens and Austen will be like. If you've read two Waugh (to say nothing of a mix of Waugh and Wodehouse), you are set. I'd advise Brideshead Revisited, since it's actually remarkably different from his others, and then any one of Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies or Handful of Dust.

Which isn't to say that Decline and Fall wasn't fun; it certainly was an enjoyable light read, and Waugh is great at satire. On my one-word summation bit, I would pick Breezy for this one (I realize that these summations are more one-word reflections of my impression of the tone of the novel, but whatever). There isn't a whole lot to say about it, though. The lead character is a bit of a cipher, but I think that works in the story. You can almost lose sight of him, even though he's always right there at the center.

I've meant to read The Water-Babies for an extremely long time; I've had an incredible challenge getting a copy, but I remember when I was 10 or 11 and Penguin re-issued all of these classic children's books that I saw it all the time. It reminded me in some ways of Princess and the Goblins or The Light Princess. Like many classic children's books, it was written for one particular child (think Winnie-the-Pooh, Narnia, etc.). The story feels extremely old fashioned, and I'm not sure how well it has stood the test of time. It's a fairy story, but it also feels a bit dated.

I actually do not know if I would have liked it as a child, primarily because it has a boy as the protagonist. I had an issue with that (seriously, I even went so far as to make people change the baby to a baby girl at the end of The Root Children; I'm not sure why that was so vitally important, but for some reason it was. . .). I was able to enjoy it in a removed sort of way now, but I didn't fall in love.

I did, however, learn something very interesting: there are no late fees for overdue juvenile books in the DC Public Library system. I do not understand this at all. Why have due dates then? And it's not like the fines are that heavy to be prohibitive; plus, as I well know, they send you daily reminders that your book is coming due starting five days before it is, so it's not like they aren't already holding our hands. I could see having some sort of fine forgiveness program, perhaps, but this seems odd.