A review by michaelontheplanet
The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh

3.0

A taste for death: Evelyn Waugh’s mordant comedy of manners - the American way of death - has dated, since little Britain became a pound shop 51st state, with the same showy grief and ostentation on display a-plenty this side of “the pond” as people would no doubt say. Poking fun at vulgar yanks becomes a bit awks when the limeys are at it as well, only in a more half-hearted and passive-aggressive manner. It’s still funny, though, particularly in satirising the entertainment business which forms the backdrop to business activities of the Whispering Glades memorial park and its animal companion counterpart, the Happier Hunting Ground, which annually generates an automatic card to be sent to the mourning pet owner informing them that their much-loved pet is wagging his / her tail in heaven tonight. All very well until it’s used for the disposal of an inconvenient (human) corpse. Best bit - the conversion of former starlet Baby Aaronson from Spanish civil rights activist Juanita del Pablo into an Irish matron,if only they could think of a name: “‘She’s turned everything down. Maureen - there are two here already; Deirdre - no one could pronounce it; Oonagh - sounds Chinese; Bridget - too common. The truth is she’s in a thoroughly nasty temper.’” Can’t say I’m surprised. Middle-of-the-Waugh and perhaps one for the devotees rather than new readers start here. Good mourning.