For those of us that revel in sardonic British humor, Evelyn Waugh’s novel (Officers and Gentlemen, Little, Brown and Company, 1955) was a treat. To say that the book was simply comedy would be to give it short shrift, however, since the novel also explores ethnic and cultural eccentricities, the senselessness and brutality of war, and the irrepressibility of the human spirit even under the most extreme conditions.

This book was selected for the book club because it was on the New York Times bestseller list in 1955, but when I went to retrieve a copy of this book from my local library I found that it was the middle book of a trilogy. Consequently, I decided to read all three books in order. The first novel, Men at Arms, was published in 1952. Thus begins the story of Guy Crouchback (shades of Dickens), the classic British gentleman that was from a once wealthy family that still carried the cache of gentry but with not quite the extensive funds required for the associated life style. Crouchback also carries some of the "lost generation" baggage in his dilettante idleness and aimlessness.

We meet Crouchback at the beginning of the Nazi effort to dominate Europe through intimidation where possible and war where necessary. There are references to his childhood, his education, his marriage, and his years in Kenya as a colonial land owner before his divorce and present state of ennui. Guy is drawn to the war not so much from a sense of duty or patriotism but because it is expected of his social class to provide Britain with its officer corps in times of war—in other words, it was a social obligation, which was the most serious of responsibilities shouldered by gentlemen and of which he was the most sterling example.

The last book of the trilogy (The End of the Battle) was published in 1961 and takes Guy through to the end of the war, provides as reasonable a wrap-up of the loose ends of his life as could be expected, and still leaves our protagonist (as good an example of the anti-hero as I have ever encountered) wrapped in the enigma of nineteenth-century British social structure in a world that has just thoroughly deconstructed such distinctions.

Those of you familiar with Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 will no doubt see the similarities with this trilogy. Both novels focus on the absurdity of life that is heightened in times of social stress, where the normal fabric of rational civility is certainly stretched if not torn—the big difference being one of American versus British style. I suspect Mr. Heller owes a large debt to Mr. Waugh.

Waugh’s dialogue-driven style is a delight for modern readers that have grown dependent on other media as well as the book. Of course the book is replete with British phrases that no doubt carry double entendre that we mere Americans will miss altogether, but you get enough to know when you are being put on. The book fairly breezes, and I found no trouble getting back into the story line when forced to stop reading by external events (like sleep). And you might want to keep your Webster’s and your Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases handy.

I recommend this book and the entire "Sword of Honour" trilogy for those who have read other light British fiction. However, it might be somewhat tedious for those who are not anglo-centric in their literary taste.