The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Loved One
Book Review: Before "Six Feet Under" there was "The Loved One"
Summary: 5 Stars
In this brilliant little satirical novel, Evelyn Waugh takes on Hollywood, the British expatriate community in Los Angeles, the death care industry, romantic love, filial love, sexism (perhaps without knowing it), and American attitudes toward success, death, foreigners, art, their pets, suicide, morality, newspaper advice columns, and religion (both ancient and new-fangled). No tombstone goes unturned. Rather than summarize the plot, let me just say that the title of the book, which is an obvious reference to the standard funteral director's euphemism for a deceased person, actually takes on another meaning as well, especially as the two main male characters (Dennis Barlow, an British would-be poet newly arrived to Los Angeles, and Mr. Joyboy, a successful local embalmer) vie for the affections of the same young lady, Aimee Thanatogenos. The novel could be seen on one level as the story of her journey from being the men's love object (desired, but never really "seen") to becoming a "loved one" in the death care industry sense of the word.
At the same time I was reading the book, I rented Tony Richardson's marvelous all-star film (1965). Both are equally wicked and satirical, but Richardson's film, in its exploitation of American anxieties about nuclear war, has more in common with Stanley Kubric's "Dr. Strangelove" than with Waugh's 1948 novel. In any case, seeing the movie didn't spoil the ending of the book. Both are brilliant and LOL fun.
Book Review: Boring at the start, nice twists and plot towards the end.
Summary: 3 Stars
First, let me be honest. The first few pages of this book are downright boring. In fact, I practically had to force myself to read these pages, because I really didn't care about two old men talking to each other. However, once I got to the halfway point of the book, I was hooked. Reading about Ms.Thanatogenos ongoing struggle on who she really loved, Mr.Joyboy or Mr.Barlow was probably the best part of the book for me. The way these characters act and speak in the book made me feel like I was standing right next to one of them, which made me greatly appreciate the writing ability of Evelyn Waugh. Alas, even this was not enough to overcome the negativeness brought down on the book by the first few pages, so I decided to give this book an average rating of only stars. I only recommend this book to people who will have the patience and discipline to get past the first few pages without skipping them, because they are a necessary part of the story. If you can do this however, you will be pulled into a whole new world of romance, comedy, treachery, and tragedy, that could very well enthrall you and keep you reading this book for years to come. Thank you for reading my review.Book Review: Boring, uninteresting
Summary: 1 Stars
"The Loved One" tries to be so outrageous and outlandish that it would become enjoyable, but is instead very un-involved and dull. There isn't a single character that you can like or identify with or help propel any interest in the plot. If I hadn't had to read it for my English class I would have burned it and never felt bad about not finishing it.Book Review: Brilliant..Pure Brilliance
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is perfect. Death, romance, conflict, it has it allBook Review: British Literary Poet Fails to Make It as a Hollywood Screenwriter
Summary: 5 Stars
Evelyn Waugh is considered, with Vladimir Nabokov and John Updike, one of the supreme stylists of the English language of the last 100 years. In The Loved One, a long short story posing as a novella, he takes his eloquent style and pits it against a scabrous Hollywood backdrop, rife with hustlers, health freaks, narcissistic actors, ruthless producers, a vast wasteland of moral bankruptcy. The protagonist, Dennis Barlow, is a British poet, who lauded with literary awards in England, moves to Hollywood to make it as a screenwriter. His first project is to write about the life of the poet Shelley but alas the film project doesn't catapult him into Hollywood fame. To the contrary, his imbecilic screenplay outcasts him from the industry so that he has to work at a pet mortuary. When his older friend and once successful screenwriter Sir Francis, also a British ex-patriate, is fired from his writing job and kills himself, Dennis must make funeral arrangments at Whispering Glades where he meets and falls in love with a mentally imbalanced mortuary cosmetician, Aimee Thanatogenos. The woman in turn is in love with the creepy embalmer known as Mr. Lovejoy. Barlow resorts to plagiarizing classic poetry to win her heart with disastrous consequences.
All of this ludicrous plot is just a vehicle for Waugh's misanthropic depiction of Hollywood. This is savage satire not for the faint of heart. Mercifully, Waugh ends his jaded novel at less than a 170 pages.
If you're new to Waugh, you might start with his masterpiece A Handful of Dust.