The Loved One » (Revised)

Although he s best known for Brideshead Revisited, his melancholy look back at the twilight of the English aristocracy, it's Evelyn Waugh s genius for satire that truly distinguishes him. His acid wit and relentless drive to uncover hypocrisy and pretension make him a writer whose sweet way with words is equally matched by his powerful, almost bitter satires of modern culture.

In The Loved One, Waugh takes an acerbic look at Hollywood's way of life and the American way of death. His hero, British expatriate Dennis Barlow, is an aspiring poet who composes by day and works by night at the Happier Hunting Ground, a local pet cemetery. By chance he is called on to arrange a funeral for a fellow Brit (a victim of the movie industry) at the resplendent Whispering Glades Cemetery, where he meets Aimee Thanatogenos, the beautiful junior cosmetician, and Mr. Joyboy, the senior mrotician, and the plots shifts into hilarious high gear.