The Loved One

Rating:
Summary: I thought that this book was not interesting.
Review: I think that this book wasn't a very interesting novel to read. I didn't enjoy it because I didn't understand what the point of writing a story like this was. I also did not like this book because I am not a very big fan of love stories. It was about a woman named Miss Thantogenos who fell in love with two men named Dennis Barlow and Mr. Joyboy. She is confused about which one to marry. It turns out that she asks a guide for advice. The guide tells her to commit suicide. She does this thinking that the guide is real. She dies and neither guy marries Miss Thantogenos.

Although I didn't enjoy the book. I did have a favorite character. She was Mr. Joyboy's mother. She was my favorite character because she was always doing what she wanted, and she didn't let anybody tell her what to do. I felt sorry for her when her parrot died.

I also did not enjoy this book because when I read a book, usually I finish it in a day or two, but this book alone took me two weeks to read. I was never anxious to pick up the book and read more. Actually, I only picked up the book when I did not have anything to do.

In conclusion, I wouldn't recommend this book for anybody to read unless they enjoy reading books about love strories. I give The Loved One not two thumbs up, but two thumbs down.

Rating:
Summary: THE MOST BORING BOOK I'VE EVER READ!!!!!
Review: I've got to mention one fact, this book should be labeled "Lullaby" instead of "Humorous". The beginning of this book was so slow, I had to read it three times before I could make a connection to the second chapter. Also, what kind of guy puts smiles on other people's loved ones in order to express his feelings to the beautician. The plot of the book was extremely shallow because the meaning of the book was to poke fun at the burial industry. The book is a good tool to speed your reading because it is challenging to read, bu,t otherwise, the book is boring and it would be a good remedy for those suffering from insomnia.

Rating:
Summary: The book was pretty boring
Review: Well the book was pretty boring to me. It was about two guys after a girl. Imight as well watch soap operas for that. And it is also about cemeteries. I don't find cemeteries interesting but rather creepy to me. And the title of the book was something I wasn't expecting. I thought it was a love story at first but as I read it, it wasn't. I just think she should have made a differnt tilte for the book. Now that's what I think of the book "The Loved One".

Rating:
Summary: It was an okay book.
Review: To me the book was okay. But it also made fun of the dead, putting smiling faces on them. Ithought your supposed to respect the dead and let them rest in peace. But some parts of the book was okay. At first I thought it was a love story about someone's loved one. But when I got to read it, it occured to me that the dead people was the ones considered the loved ones and that really got me confussed. So I give it three stars. That means it isn't bad or it isn't good. It just means it's okay. I just think that the tilte should have been something else though.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult to read and not very interesting.
Review: The novel "The Loved One" by Evelyn Waugh had an unclear and confusing story line. The vocabulary was difficult to understand because they were mostly British terms. The author also wrote too much on feelings and thoughts rather then events and important conversations. The story was not easy to follow. The author seemed to jump around between people and conversations. Dispite all of this the end of the book came together. It finally became a little more iteresting to me. I thought the ending was twisted because both Mr. Joyboy and Mr. Barlow said they cared about Mrs.Thanatogenos. In reality I think they cared more for themselves than for her. Over all though, I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but hard to read and understand at times
Review: As I said, it was hard to read and understand, especially in the beginning. Knowing that it was written in the 1940's helped me to picture the setting of the book and understand that $50.00 a week was a normal paycheck. Also, the way they dressed. It was a very different view of cemetaries, mortuaries and death. When death is a big part of your job, it's a paycheck instead of a tragedy. I found the book to be boreing and hard to keep reading. It isn't one I would choose to read. It was also predictable, and that made it boring for me too.

Rating:
Summary: A true love story and how people go through joy and pain
Review: " A tricky yet simple book, mixing irony, love, and death to make this a surprising book. One woman two men, what ending will come of this love triangle. One of Waugh's most prolific books yet."

Rating:
Summary: Not a must read.
Review: I do not think that this was a very good book. All the jokes that Waugh tried to make were not funny, and the characters were dull. I would not recomend this book if you likes ones with a lot of action and suspense in them.

Rating:
Summary: Well worth reading!
Review: This book was worth reading because I found the satire amusing. The idea that the morticians would go through so much trouble just to make a corpse smile struck me funny. Even Mr. Joyboy's name was funny because he acted joyful, just like his name.

Another thing I found interesting in the story was that there was not one character that I liked. I would recommend this book to someone who finds irony and satire amusing.

Rating:
Summary: Overall a good book but not as good as implied by reviews
Review: "A thoroughly horrible and fiendishly entertaining book-Mr Waugh has never written so brilliantly" These are the words of Mr. Orville Prescott of the New York Times. It appears that he had enjoyed this book as did many others. I , however, did not find it as witty and comical as it was made out to be. I thought the reviews over glamorized the book a tad. This particular Waugh novel although slow at the start and hard to settle into, had some especially clever pieces. You could say that this novel is no better than Jurassic Park, for example, but you have to consider the two very different styles, satire and sci-fi, so you can't judge it that way. I, myself, don't have other novels of his to compare this to so I can't say if this is his best. The element of the story that I found most intriguing was the dangerous love triangle involving, Aimee, Mr. Joyboy, and Dennis Barlow. This proved fatal in the final pages of the novel for Ms. Thanatogenos. I enjoyed thoroughly reading parts with the laid-back Mr. Barlow. He reminds me of me sometimes, making the book more bearable. When a reader can connect with a character, it makes the reading experience more pleasurable. I think this book was at the very least entertaining and at the most slightly gruesome.