An over-the-top Evelyn Waugh novel. Ah, Evelyn Waugh, master of the ridiculous. Think of the characters in "Vile Bodies," out of touch and absurd — "Adam felt a little dizzy, so he had another drink" — with last names like Outrage and Chasm. They bounce all over the countryside, vague and half-hearted, crashing cars and wasting money and giving vast fortunes to random drunk Army majors who repeatedly and predictably disappear without a trace. If that doesn't sound like the infrastructure of political D.C., I don't know what does. (The drunk Army major reappears with the money at the end of the book, by the way — but by then, it's been completely devalued.)