The Loved One Audiobook By Evelyn Waugh cover art

The Loved One

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The Loved One

By: Evelyn Waugh
Narrated by: Simon Prebble
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Following the death of a friend, the poet and pets' mortician Dennis Barlow finds himself entering the artificial Hollywood paradise of the Whispering Glades Memorial Park. Within its golden gates, death, American-style, is wrapped up and sold like a package holiday - and Dennis gets drawn into a bizarre love triangle with Aimée Thanatogenos, a naïve Californian corpse beautician, and Mr. Joyboy, a master of the embalmer's art.

Waugh's dark and savage satire on the Anglo-American cultural divide depicts a world where reputation, love, and death cost a very great deal.

©1976 Auberon Waugh (P)2012 Hachette Audio Classics Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Fiction Comedy Witty
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This captures LA and America so beautifully and is a delight. One should have a touch of cynicism for full flavor! A masterpiece.

A perfect book

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My instinct is to buy stuff written by Waugh, especially when it’s on sale on Audible.

The language is crisp and creative, as always. The observations are astute, especially as to a Britisher’s early mid-century views of Hollywood. And the weaving in of the operations of cemeteries and funeral operations are very insightful and satirical, funny, and biting.

The problem for me was that the story was uninteresting. I could go into it more but won’t. It’s probably a personal matter, and you may very well see it differently.

For me, the story was set up very well but then fell off the table.

If you listen, I hope it will be better for you.

Disappointed

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Modern satire at its finest. Evelyn Waugh skewers post war Hollywood. A return to his early form in Vile Bodies.

Hilarious funny.

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This is Waugh at his finest. I hope all of us Americans can benefit from the view from outside in.

Dripping Satire

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Quick and ironically satisfying. The narration was stellar. Complex yet lazer sharp. Moves fast, this author always leaves me wanting more.

Genius use of dialog.

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The whole thing was just weird. I didn’t like it. I would not recommend it

Weird

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Waugh is the king of dark humor, and this is one of his best. The reader is perfect - does male and female voices very tastefully, and has an excellent sense of timing.

Glorious

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Hmm, did this just fly over my head? Maybe this is clever satire, but I felt more like it was just a series of digs against ugly Americans, gullible women, and British snobbery. Yes, the digs are the point in satire, but they should be delivered with great fun or ludicrousness, which I didn’t get. Mr. Prebble’s narration was excellent, with his exaggerated pomp. However, the narration wasn’t enough to engage me and I got to the end thinking: is that it?

Satire? Or just mean spirited?

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