Review: The Loved One, Evelyn Waugh

Title: The Loved One
Author: Evelyn Waugh
Begun: June 30, 2007
Completed: June 30, 2007

Of all the books I've read in the past year, I think I've enjoyed The Loved One the most. Waugh is best known today for the depressing and homoerotic Brideshead Revisited, but The Loved One is an entirely different animal.

Were Waugh alive today, he would probably have made indie films. In its brevity and ruthless satire, The Loved One seems much less a book than a movie - and a good film adaptation would be both terrific fun and fit in well at Cannes or Sundance. It's a strange comparison to make, maybe, but the most accurate one I can think of.

We like to call well-done a satire "biting satire", but The Loved One is possessed of fangs. Waugh rips holes in people and communities we would never have thought to ridicule. I admire his acuity, not least because it made me laugh. A lot.