Whoo-hoo, I'm in love with Anthony Powell! Just finished book 1 of A Dance to the Music of Time: A Question of Upbringing which starts the 12-book series narrated by Jenkins, an astute observer of people, places and politics. This first book introduces us to some of the characters who will come and go through his life - and the remainder of these books.
We meet Jenkins in prep school and stay with him through his first year of college meeting his narcissistic uncle, the prankster Peter Templer, Peter's shy sister Jean and their wealthy friend Stringham. Jenkins looks in awe as his friends leave school, find romance in the world and with women and create their lives while he follows a narrower path: mooning over Jean and Jean-like creatures while attending to his studies at the university.
This is a sweet look at upper class Britain in the mid 1900s. Dry humor abounds, but so does a bit of slapstick. Take the scene in which a champion race car driver, in the dead of night, attempts to remove a visiting lawyer's top hat from his luggage and sneak a chamber pot into it's place. Funny stuff.
Can't wait for books 2-12!
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