A review by bethpaws
The Loved One. Evelyn Waugh by Evelyn Waugh

challenging dark funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

A beautifully and acerbically written short  satirical book. The story centres around English poet Dennis Barlow who works at the pet cemetery Happier Hunting Grounds. While arranging a funeral at  Whispering Glades he starts a relationship with Thanatogenos the cosmetician. She is torn between Dennis and the senior mortician Joyboy and seeks advice from a very un-bothered advice columist Guru Brahmin. The discovery that the poems Dennis is quoting to her are not his own, and learning where he works (facilitated by Joyboy) results in Thanatogenos seeking and taking more (rather awful) advice from Guru Brahim. Dennis and Joyboy find a grim solution and the English Dennis ends the story one up on the Americans. 

So much more social commentary that I have missed as I am unaware of the social backgrounds to the other themes in the book of Hollywood and the death culture Waugh despised in America.  But I read for pleasure not analysis. 
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