The Loved One

Rating:
Summary: "Mothers of great men often disconcert their son's admirers"
Review: Dennis Barlow--a British poet--works (much to the shame of the British ex-patriate community) at the Happier Hunting Ground Pet Cemetery in Hollywood. When fellow Britisher, Sir Francis commits suicide, Dennis is roped in to organize the funeral. Sir Francis is scheduled for internment in the Poet's Corner with the services of the prestigious Whispering Glades funeral home. While finalizing the minute details of the funeral, Dennis meets Aimee Thanatogenos, a cosmetician at the funeral home. Aimee is also involved with embalmer Mr. Joyboy, and soon Dennis and Joyboy become archrivals for the lovely Aimee's affections.

Aimee and Joyboy take great pride in their work, and never once does their professionalism slip. Dennis, on the other hand, is remarkably irreverent about every aspect of life, so he has to resort to some devious means to win Aimee. Aimee is easily influenced (she may be beautiful, but she's not very bright), and just as she is swayed by Mr. Joyboy's status at the funeral home, she is also swayed by the idea that Dennis is a bona fide poet. Soon Dennis is borrowing lines from some of the world's greatest love poetry and claiming it is his own, and Aimee is caught between the two men--unable to decide which one to marry. Meanwhile Mr. Joyboy's embalmed corpses act as a sort of barometer for his courtship of Aimee--when the relationship is going well, "the corpses who came to Aimee for her ministrations now grinned with triumph."

"The Loved One" is full of sly, macabre humour, and some of the funniest scenes occur when Aimee goes home with Mr. Joyboy to meet his mother--a miserable woman whose bosom companion is a naked parrot named Sambo. "The Loved One" is one of the oddest novels in the English language, and it's certainly bizarre that a funeral home is the setting of a comic novel. Waugh--ever known for a biting, wicked sense of humour, exploits the language and internal politics of the funeral industry beautifully and mercilessly. I highly recommend this novel for an odd, distracting read--I doubt you'll ever forget it--displacedhuman.

Rating:
Summary: The Dark Side of Death
Review: Just after World War Two, in Southern California, The Happier Hunting Ground caters for the tasteful disposal of dead pets while Whispering Glades is the ultimate in undertaking. There is also a scattering of British expatriates, one of whom (Dennis Barlow), works for The Happier Hunting Ground.

Barlow comes into contact with Whispering Glades following the death of his benefactor, Sir Francis Hinsley. Barlow meets the "cosmetician" Aimée Thanatogenos. Will Dennis and Aimée make their relationship work?

"The Loved One" is a dark satire on commercialism. Rituals surrounding the disposal of dead humans and especially dead animals still seem slightly strange even now, but must have been even more so when the book was written. Money is to be made everywhere, and there is even snobbery and social cachet in death.

It's interesting to note that Waugh was on to hyperbolic job titles "mortuary hostess" for instance. Quite what he would have made of the avalanche of such titles that exist today is anyone's guess.

"The Loved One" is a short piece, darkly humorous, but not in the same league as his earlier work.

G Rodgers

Rating:
Summary: Odd little macabre novella
Review: The Loved One is an odd little story about a love triangle among people who are unusually comfortable handling dead things. Dennis, a poet/pet mortician, is not entirely forthcoming about his occupation with Aimée Thanatogenos lest she, as a beautician of human cadavers, despise him for it. Aimée, for her part, is torn between her attraction to Dennis and her respect for Mr. Joyboy, who is what passes for a stud among morticians. Joyboy courts Aimée by manipulating into smiles the faces of the corpses he works on that are headed for her cubicle.

Waugh's macabre novella pokes fun at the ceremonial nonsense with which we shroud death, packaging that manages to render the inevitable obscene. It's amusing, if not a "wickedly funny" satire as promised in the blurbs, and would perhaps be more successfully humorous on film.

Rating:
Summary: Waugh's Dark Send-Up of the Hollywood Funeral Industry
Review: "This is a purely fanciful tale, a little nightmare produced by the unaccustomed high living of a brief visit to Hollywood." Thus, Evelyn Waugh begins "The Loved One," his macabre comic send-up of Hollywood, the Funeral Industry and Post World War II Southern California with a one-page preface entitled "A Warning."

"The Loved One" begins with the usual cast of Waugh characters. There is Sir Francis Hinsley, an aging Englishman who, when he first arrived in America more than twenty years earlier was the only knight in Hollywood, President of the Cricket Club and chief screenwriter at Megalopolitan Pictures. Now in decline, he no longer reads, writes or does much of anything except sit in a rocker, read a tawdry magazine or two, and drink whiskey and soda. He lives with the much younger English expatriate, Dennis Barlow, a poet whose one literary success earned him an invitation to Hollywood where his screenwriting career quickly dissipated. Barlow now works at the Happier Hunting Ground pet cemetery, an embarrassment to his English colleagues in Hollywood. As the actor Sir Ambrose Ambercrombie tells young Barlow, in a sort of recasting of the White Man's Burden in a thoroughly modern context:

"We limeys have a peculiar position to keep up, you know, Barlow. They may laugh at us a bit-the way we talk and the way we dress; our monocles-they may think us cliquey and stand-offish, but, by God, they respect us. Your five-to-two is a judge of quality. He knows what he's buying and it's only the finest type of Englishman that you meet out here. I often feel like an ambassador Barlow. It's a responsibility, I can tell you, and in various degrees every Englishman out here shares it. We can't be at the top of the tree but we are all men of responsibility. You never find an Englishman among the under-dogs-except in England, of course. That's understood out here, thanks to the example we've set. There are jobs that an Englishman just doesn't take."

The stage thus set, "The Loved One" soon takes off into a dark comic narrative of the American funeral industry. Sir Francis, no longer wanted by Megalopolitan Pictures, is turned out of his office and shunned. Young Barlow returns home to find that Sir Francis, in despair, has hanged himself. Appropriate funeral arrangements must be made.

Barlow then embarks upon his adventure in the funeral industry, making arrangements at Whispering Glades, a full-service funeral establishment and cemetery for Hollywood's rich and famous:

"Times without number since he first came to Hollywood he had heard the name of that great necropolis on the lips of others; he had read it in the local newssheets when some more than usually illustrious body was given more than usually splendid honours or some new acquisition was made to its collected masterpieces of contemporary art. Of recent weeks his interest had been livelier and more technical because it was in humble emulation of its great neighbor that the Happier Hunting Ground was planned. The language he daily spoke in his new trade was a patois derived from that high pure source. . . . As a missionary priest making his first visit to the Vatican, as a paramount chief of Equatorial Africa mounting the Eiffel Tower, Dennis Barlow, poet and pets' mortician drove through the Golden Gates."

In a brilliant comic chapter, Barlow meets first the Mortuary Hostess, who explores burial options with him:

"Embalmment, of course, and after that incineration or not, according to taste. Our crematory is on scientific principles, the heat is so intense that all inessentials are volatilized. Some people did not like the thought that ashes of the casket and clothing were mixed with the Loved One's. Normal disposal is by inhumement, entombment, inurement or immurement, but lately many people just lately prefer insarcophagusment. . . . That, of course, is for those for whom price is not the primary consideration."

After choosing a burial option, there is the matter of selecting appropriate garb for the deceased, viewing the various slumber rooms for Sir Francis' wake, and selecting a burial site in Whispering Glades. As the Hostess explains: "The Park is zoned. Each zone has its own name and appropriate Work of Art. Zones of course vary in price and within the zones the prices vary according to the proximity to the Work of Art." And the Park is, of course, restricted to Caucasians: "The Dreamer has made that rule for the sake of the Waiting Ones. In their time of trial they prefer to be with their own people."

Barlow then moves on to the Funeral Director, who, in a brilliant passage of dark comic wit, explains the benefits of Before Need Arrangements to Barlow, trying to sell him on the need for making his own funeral arrangements while he's young.

Finally, young Barlow is introduced to the mortuary cosmetician, Aimee Thanatogenos, and the embalmer, Mr. Joyboy. It is here that the real plot begins, for the second half of "The Loved One" brilliantly narrates an offbeat love triangle among Barlow, Aimee and Joyboy that ends in a darkly comic way that only Waugh could imagine.

"The Loved One" is a short, brilliant, dark, and funny comic novel that represents Waugh at his best. Read and enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Waugh's Dark Send-Up of the Hollywood Funeral Industry
Review: "This is a purely fanciful tale, a little nightmare produced by the unaccustomed high living of a brief visit to Hollywood." Thus, Evelyn Waugh begins "The Loved One," his macabre comic send-up of Hollywood, the Funeral Industry and Post World War II Southern California with a one-page preface entitled "A Warning."

"The Loved One" begins with the usual cast of Waugh characters. There is Sir Francis Hinsley, an aging Englishman who, when he first arrived in America more than twenty years earlier was the only knight in Hollywood, President of the Cricket Club and chief screenwriter at Megalopolitan Pictures. Now in decline, he no longer reads, writes or does much of anything except sit in a rocker, read a tawdry magazine or two, and drink whiskey and soda. He lives with the much younger English expatriate, Dennis Barlow, a poet whose one literary success earned him an invitation to Hollywood where his screenwriting career quickly dissipated. Barlow now works at the Happier Hunting Ground pet cemetery, an embarrassment to his English colleagues in Hollywood. As the actor Sir Ambrose Ambercrombie tells young Barlow, in a sort of recasting of the White Man's Burden in a thoroughly modern context:

"We limeys have a peculiar position to keep up, you know, Barlow. They may laugh at us a bit-the way we talk and the way we dress; our monocles-they may think us cliquey and stand-offish, but, by God, they respect us. Your five-to-two is a judge of quality. He knows what he's buying and it's only the finest type of Englishman that you meet out here. I often feel like an ambassador Barlow. It's a responsibility, I can tell you, and in various degrees every Englishman out here shares it. We can't be at the top of the tree but we are all men of responsibility. You never find an Englishman among the under-dogs-except in England, of course. That's understood out here, thanks to the example we've set. There are jobs that an Englishman just doesn't take."

The stage thus set, "The Loved One" soon takes off into a dark comic narrative of the American funeral industry. Sir Francis, no longer wanted by Megalopolitan Pictures, is turned out of his office and shunned. Young Barlow returns home to find that Sir Francis, in despair, has hanged himself. Appropriate funeral arrangements must be made.

Barlow then embarks upon his adventure in the funeral industry, making arrangements at Whispering Glades, a full-service funeral establishment and cemetery for Hollywood's rich and famous:

"Times without number since he first came to Hollywood he had heard the name of that great necropolis on the lips of others; he had read it in the local newssheets when some more than usually illustrious body was given more than usually splendid honours or some new acquisition was made to its collected masterpieces of contemporary art. Of recent weeks his interest had been livelier and more technical because it was in humble emulation of its great neighbor that the Happier Hunting Ground was planned. The language he daily spoke in his new trade was a patois derived from that high pure source. . . . As a missionary priest making his first visit to the Vatican, as a paramount chief of Equatorial Africa mounting the Eiffel Tower, Dennis Barlow, poet and pets' mortician drove through the Golden Gates."

In a brilliant comic chapter, Barlow meets first the Mortuary Hostess, who explores burial options with him:

"Embalmment, of course, and after that incineration or not, according to taste. Our crematory is on scientific principles, the heat is so intense that all inessentials are volatilized. Some people did not like the thought that ashes of the casket and clothing were mixed with the Loved One's. Normal disposal is by inhumement, entombment, inurement or immurement, but lately many people just lately prefer insarcophagusment. . . . That, of course, is for those for whom price is not the primary consideration."

After choosing a burial option, there is the matter of selecting appropriate garb for the deceased, viewing the various slumber rooms for Sir Francis' wake, and selecting a burial site in Whispering Glades. As the Hostess explains: "The Park is zoned. Each zone has its own name and appropriate Work of Art. Zones of course vary in price and within the zones the prices vary according to the proximity to the Work of Art." And the Park is, of course, restricted to Caucasians: "The Dreamer has made that rule for the sake of the Waiting Ones. In their time of trial they prefer to be with their own people."

Barlow then moves on to the Funeral Director, who, in a brilliant passage of dark comic wit, explains the benefits of Before Need Arrangements to Barlow, trying to sell him on the need for making his own funeral arrangements while he's young.

Finally, young Barlow is introduced to the mortuary cosmetician, Aimee Thanatogenos, and the embalmer, Mr. Joyboy. It is here that the real plot begins, for the second half of "The Loved One" brilliantly narrates an offbeat love triangle among Barlow, Aimee and Joyboy that ends in a darkly comic way that only Waugh could imagine.

"The Loved One" is a short, brilliant, dark, and funny comic novel that represents Waugh at his best. Read and enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: This Book Really Bites (In the Good Way)
Review: I didn't really know what to expect of this novel since is is thought of as one of Waugh's minor novels. After reading The Loved One, I can't see why this is considered one of the lesser works. The Loved One is one of the most hilarious and true novels I have ever read. Waugh is wise to some of the darker aspects of human nature, and he possesses the ability to open up the readers eyes to that reality.

The plot centers on a love triangle between Dennis, Aimee, and Mr. Joyboy. All of them work in the funeral industry in Hollywood which Waugh uses to lambaste the commercialism of our culture and the selfishness and heartlessness that produces it. At times, the novel is hilarious, such as when Mr. Joyboy tries to express his love for Aimee through the smiles on the corpses he prepares, but the novel is always dark. These people are trying to find true life and love, but they are in despair and are unable of achieving happiness.

The Loved One is an absolutely brilliant novel by of the the twentieth century's great novelists. Certainly, read his most popular works such as Brideshead Revisited (my favorite), A Handful of Dust, and Scoop, but don't let yourself miss this one.

Rating:
Summary: Enter Reader, and be happy
Review: I picked this book up long ago because a parts of the Doctor Who story Revelation Of The Daleks was inspired by it. Evelyn Waugh's book is a skewering of the English expatriates and Americans in Hollywood, but also that of the funeral business.

English poet Dennis Barlow works at the Happier Hunting Ground,a pet cemetery, where services are offered to bereaved pet owners, such as interrment versus incineration, a niche in the columbarium versus the remains at home, and every year, a card sent reading "Your little is thinking of you in heaven today and " That last part might be "purring happily" or "singing in orison." And at a service for a dog: "Dog that is born of b--ch hath but a short time to live."

When his friend Sir Francis Hinsley, chief script writer at Megapolitan Pictures, commits suicide after getting the sack, he goes to make funeral arrangements at Whispering Glades, where the dearly departed are referred to as Loved Ones. This is where Waugh's depiction of the funeral hostess who comes off as a salesman with a pitch comes in. There's a funny line on the description of someone who had been a month at sea and was only ID'd by his wristwatch. "They fixed that stiff so he looked like it was his wedding day. Why, if he's sat on an atom bomb, they'd make him presentable." And the hostess later launches into a speech, trying to sell Barlow onto the idea of making arrangements for himself, using an argument akin to people turning down insurance only to lose their home, get robbed, etc. the next day.

He meets and falls in love with Aimee Thanatogenos, a crematorium cosmetician. Aimee though, is enamoured with Mr. Joyboy, the head embalmer who goes out of his way to create smiles on the stiffs he sends to Aimee. Joyboy is pleased with her work: "I never have to tell you anything. We work in unison. When I send a Loved One in to you, ... I feel as though I were speaking to you through him." Yet she is torn and writes letters to the Guru Brahmin, a kind of Dear Abby advisory column, over the matter.

However, twists of fate occur, leading to tragedy in the end, and leave it to Waugh to leave his tried and true cynical humour.
So enter, reader, and be happy to read this cynical laugh.

Rating:
Summary: Till a the seas gang dry, my dear...
Review: For those unfamiliar with Waugh, no better starting place than this, a compact volume but one that bursts with creativity, style and pitch black humor. In short, failed British expat poet Dennis Barlow competes with the stiff American mama's boy/mortician Mr. Joyboy for the love of Aimee (get it?) Thanatogenos against the backdrop of both 1950's Hollywood and the funeral industry. A small masterpiece, "The Loved One" showcases Mr. Waugh's wit, here like that of a cat toying with a mouse pre-meal. Anyone whose sole exposure to Waugh is via his classic "Brideshead Revisited" will be shocked by the darkness and gallows humor; those who have read "A Handful of Dust" will see Waugh's imaginativeness toward the macabre and the obscene honed to a razor's edge here.

Rating:
Summary: dead funny
Review: What a ghastly, funny story. There should be a new word invented("Waughism" or something) meaning to laugh and shudder at the same time.

Rating:
Summary: The tyranny of banality
Review: Denis Barlow is a "versatile and precise" British poet, his attributes allow him to work in a pet cemetery in California. He loses one of his friends and organizing the funeral he meets Miss Thanatogenous, a cosmetician at "Whispering Glades", a very particular cemetery. The relationship between the smart poet and his sweet, almost dumb, girlfriend helps to show the hypocrisy of people devoted to the cult of appearances.

The cynicism of the poet, his incisive look and revealing insights on the alienation of the other characters are as effective to unmask the Hollywood society of his time as to confront similar realities nowadays. In some way the book is related with Orwell's "1984" and "Animal farm". "The loved one" is a glance to the banality and fatuity that can punish, as the worst of tyrannies, the life of ordinary people.