The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (1957)

This turned up on the audiobook shelves at the library; I recognized the title from my parents' shelves, so I thought why not? It's all rather English, borrowing from stereotype here and lending itself to stereotype over there. There's not much drama, since the reader (listener) knows perfectly well that Waugh's stand-in Pinfold is suffering from hallucinated voices while on a long cruise; the melodrama he imagines is nearly without consequence, except on the few occasions when Pinfold threatens to act in the real world based on the misinformation in his head. Fortunately (for himself; unfortunately for the reader) he never really does much except send alarming telegrams to his wife and change his tickets for an earlier return.

But the audiobook reader (Michael Cochrane) does an excellent job bringing all those voices to life, with distinct tones and accents, and the result is not unlike an old-fashioned radio play. I doubt I've learned any profound life lessons, but I did enjoy myself for 5 hours. ( )

Waugh’s fictionalized account of the time he went crazy on a cruise due to reckless self-medicating should be pretty entertaining, right? Wrong. Waugh just describes his paranoid delusions in detail. Why should we care? I’ll never know because I gave up a quarter of the way through. ( )

A semi-autobiographical novel relating an episode of Waugh's middle age, specifically an experience of auditory hallucinations whilst under the influence of booze and sleeping pills. Neither particularly amusing nor particularly reflective with regard to the apparent self-loathing(and full-scale persecution complex) that the voices reveal. There is some bit of acknowledgement of Waugh's apparently unendearing personality, but the pat ending (the voices cease when he simply ceases taking the little grey pills) is an unsatisfying end to an unsatisfying read. A short book, not short enough.

amazon PD: AN INABILITY TO CONTROL HIS FANTASIES SENDS GILBERT PINFOLD, A WELL-KNOWN AUTHOR, CRUISING ON A CEYLON-BOUND LINER TO RECUPERATE. BUT TO HIS HORROR THE HALLUCINATIONS INCREASE AND LIFE ON BOARD BECOMES VERY EMBARRASSING. THIS CURIOUS AND DIVERTING NOVEL THROWS NEW LIGHT ON EVELYN WAUGH'S REMARKABLE TALENT.
ME: This 1962 editions also includes love among the ruins and tactical exercise.

amazon PD: AN INABILITY TO CONTROL HIS FANTASIES SENDS GILBERT PINFOLD, A WELL-KNOWN AUTHOR, CRUISING ON A CEYLON-BOUND LINER TO RECUPERATE. BUT TO HIS HORROR THE HALLUCINATIONS INCREASE AND LIFE ON BOARD BECOMES VERY EMBARRASSING. THIS CURIOUS AND DIVERTING NOVEL THROWS NEW LIGHT ON EVELYN WAUGH'S REMARKABLE TALENT.