The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh - 10 out of 10

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh

10 out of 10

You must read this masterpiece, for it is hilarious, exhilarating and superb…included on The Guardian 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, in the Comedy section:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction

Dennis Barlow is the hero of this fantastic story that takes place in California, with American and British protagonists, and he is a poet that arrived in Hollywood to work for a version of the life of Shelley, adapted for the big screen, but when he no longer works for the studios, ends up at the Happier hunting Grounds, a pet cemetery.

The hero shares a home with Sir Francis Hinsley, who works for Megalopolitan – the name hints at the megalomania that Evelyn Waugh has spotted while visiting MGM – Studios, up to the point where they no longer require his services and they sack him in such a humiliating way that the man hangs himself.

Sir Ambrose Abercrombie is very unhappy with the job that the protagonist has, considering that the British have to keep the flag high and can only afford to work in menial, demeaning for him professions while in Britain, but not in California, where they all have to present a common front.

While he visits Whispering Glades, a funeral home that is paradoxically the epitome of humor, the absurd and pomposity, Barlow meets cosmetician Aimee Thanatogenos (from Thanatos which in Greek mythology was the personification of Death), a woman who bizarrely enjoys her work and is in awe, like all other women working at this outré, pretentious institution, with the other figure of amusing, intriguing, ludicrous manifestations, senior mortician Mr. Joyboy – what a terrific name!

The narrative is provocative, it was written after the genius Evelyn Waugh went to Hollywood to discuss the adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, was fascinated by the visit to a cemetery, the contrast between American and European manners and values and he has created a chef d’oeuvre that places Aimee and Dennis in contrast.

Reference is made to Henry James, whose novels are surmised with “American innocence and European experience” and in some ways it appears to be the description of the relationship between the hero and the woman he may love – at least attracted to – and between the British and the /Americans in general.

The protagonist tries to seduce the young woman, tells her she is a poet, but not that without the means to survive he works at the smaller, not only much less glamorous, but undignified Happier Hunting Grounds – this would later prove to have been a wise choice, because the woman considers the pet cemetery despicable.

While Aimee is impressed with her young suitor, she is also uneasy, intrigued, upset with some aspects of his character that are un-American, challenging, he is cynical about things which she thinks deserve respect, like religion, for although she is not a member of any denomination – her father has lost all his money to a church while her mother was an alcoholic – she thinks religion must be treated with deference.

The young woman addresses the Guru Brahmin – there are actually two men who respond questions, one for those who want an answer in the press, publicly and the other responds to those who want private suggestions and alas drinks too much and would lose his job as a result.

Miss Thanatogenos does not know how to choose between the young, ironical man and Mr. Joyboy, a master in his job, adored by the women at the Whispering Glades, a mortician who has the hand of an artist – this is humorous actually – and holds the position of a saint or at least royalty in his department and who sends Loved Ones always with a smile for Aimee to work on.

One day, she is informed by the skilled mortician that the owner and manager of the funeral home that she is soon to be promoted and become the first woman mortician in the establishment, therefore they need to celebrate and she is invited to his home, to meet his mom.

That is both another hilarious, but also embarrassing, peculiar, curious passage, where the obnoxious mother awaits listening the political commentaries on the radio, tells her son and the guest to sit quietly, all the time looking mean and talking with hostility, when not outright hatred, complaining, moaning and only addressing her old, featherless parrot with some tenderness.

Miss Thanatogenos is almost mortified by this encounter, a visit that is so miserable as to completely antagonize the poor young woman, seeing as the premises where almost destitute, the manner and appearance of the presentable mortician are awful when he is at home.

On the other front, there is some progress when Aimee and Dennis become engaged, they make promises while in a special place in the Whispering Glades, where couples exchange kisses and vows, near a poem written on a sign which makes the hero happy that he did not use it in his correspondence with the American girl who has just made him happy.

Alas, events develop in an unfavorable way for the protagonist, after the death of the parrot Mr. Joyboy visits the Happier Hunting Grounds to arrange for a special ceremony, wants Aimee to participate at the funeral, seeing as his precious, pampered and always furious mother has no other acquaintances and this is when the girl makes a tragic, terrible discovery.

Her fiancée has lied to her and not just in not revealing that he works at the despicable –from the point of view of the privileged employees of the Whispering Glades, copied by the lower class funeral home- this a question and a laughing matter here, for why would the cemeteries for animals be so much less honorable than the other ones?

When she confronts the man with the knowledge that he presented verse as his own, when in fact written by others, in some cases centuries before, Dennis Barlow is amused and mirthful, for he says he should be aggravated, for in Europe verse quoting is a custom and he did not think that her knowledge of Classics was so limited…words to that effect.

The Loved One is exalting, glorious and hilarious.