The Loved One (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Evelyn Waugh
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of dark humor.
This is my first story by Evelyn Waugh. I've had a few of his books sitting on my shelf for quite a while now and I liked this one enough to feel bad I never worked my way around to him sooner.
I'm nabbing the description from Amazon:
In Hollywood, at Whispering Glades, a full-service funeral home for departed greats, the mononymonous Mr. Joyboy and Aimee Thanatogenos fall in love...with each other and their work. He is chief embalmer, she a crematorium cosmetician. They spend their day...more
I'm nabbing the description from Amazon:
In Hollywood, at Whispering Glades, a full-service funeral home for departed greats, the mononymonous Mr. Joyboy and Aimee Thanatogenos fall in love...with each other and their work. He is chief embalmer, she a crematorium cosmetician. They spend their day...more
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Read in June, 2004
The Loved One has been on my reading list for a while; unfortunately, I don't remember who recommended it. I picked up a copy somewhere along the line & decided to whittle down my To Read pile a bit.
We meet Dennis Barlow, a young British expatriate, living in Southern California. Unable to find work as a poet, he takes up a job at The Happier Hunting Ground, a pet cemetery that styles itself after Whispering Glades (a dead ringer [so to speak] for Forest Lawn).
Due to darkly humorou...more
We meet Dennis Barlow, a young British expatriate, living in Southern California. Unable to find work as a poet, he takes up a job at The Happier Hunting Ground, a pet cemetery that styles itself after Whispering Glades (a dead ringer [so to speak] for Forest Lawn).
Due to darkly humorou...more
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There is a film to this, which I haven't seen, but think I would have liked to.
This is Waugh's where else but America book.
Imagine the sort of book an Englishman would write about living in LA and working in a funeral parlour for animals who fancies a local woman who works in a funeral parlour for people and sends her poetry he has written, just for her - you know - like Shall I compare thee... Yes, the underlying assumption is that the Americans are a bit simple and a bit thick, and th...more
This is Waugh's where else but America book.
Imagine the sort of book an Englishman would write about living in LA and working in a funeral parlour for animals who fancies a local woman who works in a funeral parlour for people and sends her poetry he has written, just for her - you know - like Shall I compare thee... Yes, the underlying assumption is that the Americans are a bit simple and a bit thick, and th...more
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Read in July, 2008
On a brief visit to Hollywood in the forties, British author Evelyn Waugh blithely dived into American culture ... and clobbered his head against the shallow bottom. The bumps and bruises of this misadventure provided the inspiration for his darkly comic novel The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy (1948), a "little nightmare" that offers something to offend everyone. Indeed, Waugh's darts blanket the board as he satirizes mid-century America's take on death, love, pets, educa...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
Dan Hofstadter
I fell in love with Evelyn Waugh after randomly running across Scoop while shelving books at my college library. I sat down and read the whole thing right there in the stacks. Whenever I move to a new place, and have to get my bearings in a new library, I like to look under FIC WAUGH. I can count on picking up a quick read that is sure to make me laugh. Plus, Waugh's books always seem to revolve around glamorously rootless narrators, travelers or ex-pats. In the case of The Loved One,...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommended to Chloe by:
Rosierecommends it for: anyone with a morbid sense of humor.
While not my favorite book in the world, I have to say I enjoyed this macabre little satire. Perhaps the somewhat unusual humor appealed to me. I tend to find such things as funeral parlors and crematoriums amusing. I do not, however, find the story to be quite as condescending towards Americans as some people have said it was. The British characters were not especially intelligent, either. In fact, I would say that there are no attractive characters in the story. Which is part of the reason why...more
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Waugh is among the most unique writers of satire in the 20th century. The Loved One is consistently entertaining, satirical, and comical. Waugh's superb command of the English language--his amazing ability to turn a phrase just so--utterly astonishes me. It is fun to watch for the constant poetical quotes Waugh satirically weaves into this tale. The Loved One mocks Hollywood, America, and the English all at once. I can not put into words how unique and clever this book really is; the scenes Waug...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in March, 2007
Evelyn Waugh is my guilty pleasure. His books are like candy, they are so easy to read. But if they are candy, they are lemon drops coated with arsenic. Waugh's bitter, sarcastic, and completely devastating portraits of humanity warm my heart. His characters destroy each other's lives so casually, and I love it.
In <i>The Loved One<i>, Waugh takes on L.A. British neocolonial snobbery in post-war Southern California, set in a Disneyesque funeral home (actually a "memorial par...more
In <i>The Loved One<i>, Waugh takes on L.A. British neocolonial snobbery in post-war Southern California, set in a Disneyesque funeral home (actually a "memorial par...more
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
A person who likes period comedies, maybe?
Yeah, this was a weird one. It takes place in a Hollywood pet cemetery, and deals with the superficial society life of Southern California. It's a comedy(?). I don't know you guys, this wasn't very good and all that I can really remember about it is the artificial speech patterns and the black humor of the ending. At least it wasn't as racist as Decline and Fall though! I read it because, for God knows what reason, some American charity decided Turkmen kids needed a half dozen Evelyn Waug...more
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Read in December, 1991
recommended to Adam by:
unarecommends it for: folks who delight in beautiful language
Please, God, let me write like Evelyn Waugh! The portrayal of the LA scene is probably a little outdated, but beyond that you will not find a more outrageous setting for a novel -- not just one funeral home, but two (the other one's for pets). The characters -- from the momma's-boy-mortician Mr. Joyboy to the agony-aunt Guru Brahmin -- are chiseled from words in the way that each block of text contains only one character and Waugh revealed them in it. You won't be sure if tears or laughter are a...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Dustin by:
Jacobrecommends it for: those unafraid of men named Evelyn
Evelyn Waugh is a man whose name is Evelyn. This is a hilarious book. It kind of makes you hate Americans and also the British. You kind of hate everybody in this book, or maybe you pity them. But anyway you laugh at everything they do. It's like "Six Feet Under", only absolutely absurd and more about British people selling out in Hollywood. I guess its not like "Six Feet Under" at all, except it takes place primarily in two mortuaries, one for people and one for pets. As a r...more
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Read in November, 2007
Very appropriate for a trip to California. Evelyn Waugh's seethingly cynical look at an Englishman's journey through the heart of Astroturf, pink flamingoes and pet cemeteries. Having just returned from not-that-glamorous Hollywood, I completely enjoyed this macabre yet prescient look at American society through the eyes of one of the more satirically cold characters you'll ever see. Still, by the end, I was hoping to join him on his one-way ticket back to London.
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
Dark Humour/Satire Fans
Really weird, good stuff. This 1948 Evelyn Waugh novella is about the English in L.A., the business of the dead and the business of Hollywood. This strange combination of subjects serves to satire the film business and the alleged shallowness of the people who work and live in tinsel town. A quick read that is as humorous as it is revealing, this is one of Waugh's lesser-known works that deserves to be rediscovered or maybe even discovered for the first time.
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
a friend I shared the movie with years ago
In the 1960s I saw this movie with a college friend. It was billed as having something in it to offend everyone and it did. She and I were the only ones laughing through most of the film. I found the book (which I had never read) at a going out of business sale at a favorite bookstore. I bought it. Read it in two days and now I am going to send it to my college chum. I must say I enjoyed the movie (40 years ago) more than the book today.
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Read in January, 1987
Loved it--very dark humor, very creepy but witty. It's been a long time since I read it.
What stands out in my memory is Mr Lovejoy, who prepares dead folks (Loved Ones) for burial in a factory-like funeral home. He's in love with one of the ladies who does makeup, so when he sends a Loved One to her station he makes sure to mold a particularly nice smile on the corpse's lips.
For those who like their humor very dry.
What stands out in my memory is Mr Lovejoy, who prepares dead folks (Loved Ones) for burial in a factory-like funeral home. He's in love with one of the ladies who does makeup, so when he sends a Loved One to her station he makes sure to mold a particularly nice smile on the corpse's lips.
For those who like their humor very dry.
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Read in December, 2007
I am critiquing stuff too often these days to feel up for writing a lengthy review. I really enjoyed Waugh's take on expat Brits in L.A. I was surprised at how contemporary it felt and in love with the way Waugh deftly wrote of social position. It was not what I had expected from the title which made it all the more brilliant. I am officially a Waugh devotee. I can't decide which of his novels to read next.
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Read in January, 1985
recommends it for:
literary comedy fans
A good fiction surrounding the strange world that is funeral homes, esp. the large circuses such as Forest Lawn. This was made into one of the wildest comedies Hollywood ever produced, starring Jonathan Winters in duo roles, a teenage Paul Williams, Liberace and Rod Steiger as the mortician, Mr. Joyboy, the most disturbing role of his life. Makes me positive that acid had hit Hollywood by 1965.
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Read in April, 2006
The copy I had of this was used, and had underlines where the previous reader would note in the margin "funny," and "ha." This reader stopped doing this by the third or fourth page, either because s/he no longer found it funny, or it became absurd to underline all passages and mark them as "ha." I think most readers will fall into either of these categories. I am in "ha."
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Its been a while since I read this one, but I've been trying to remember past books to add to my shelves. Anyway, while details are a little fuzzy, I do recall it being hilarious, and instantly wanting to read more Waugh. A quick read, dark humor, but humor nonetheless. A good book to follow a really dramatic book, when you find yourself needing something a little lighter.
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
Anglophiles in LA
In 2006, I began to reread The Loved Ones. Which was smart because I was living in LA at the time, and this book really must be read only after living in LA for a time. It's delicious in every possible way. From the descriptions of wealthy home backyard landscaping to the little status symbols of cabin class, Waugh nails everything. It's a joy.
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