The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh is ranked 775th on The Greatest Books of All Time site, it is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, and it used to be one of my Top 200 Favorites, albeit I am not so sure anymore, by the time this review ends, maybe I will know better- you have thousands of notes on magnum opera from the aforementioned lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html

 

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh is ranked 775th on The Greatest Books of All Time site, it is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, and it used to be one of my Top 200 Favorites, albeit I am not so sure anymore, by the time this review ends, maybe I will know better- you have thousands of notes on magnum opera from the aforementioned lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html

 

8 out of 10

 

The Loved One https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-loved-one-by-evelyn-waugh-10-out-of.html was stupendous on the first reading: ‘You must read this masterpiece, for it is hilarious, exhilarating and superb’ this is what I was saying in the note I wrote maybe ten years ago, though things have changed

 

It is a question of having too high expectations, but I think it has more to do with the image of Evelyn Waugh, as reflected in The Letters of Kingsley Amis- “Waugh very silly fellow he was. One first class cunt could have written the 'funny' parts of S of Honor and the whole of Behead. More and more I think of him as a chap who wrote one marvelous book (D&F) then WENT OFF having joined the Catholic Church…Woman I met who knew him a bit said it wasn't so much his rudeness that stuck in your craw as his buttering up dukes and marquises, praising their marvelous houses and beautiful gardens, lovely daughters & c. He did that to her when she was married to one, then stopped it when she stopped being…’ https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-letters-of-kingsley-amis-edited-by.html

The motion picture adapted from the novel did not help improve the opinion, notwithstanding the presence of Rod Steiger as Mr. Joyboy, the name is hilarious, as many passages in the book, which a very good one, it just failed to overwhelm on a second encounter, this also an issue of pressing for outstanding experiences

 

Furthermore, the satire is appropriate, maybe even more today, when America has become a rather ludicrous notion, it used to be the greatest democracy in the world, I wanted, even tried to live there (where my sister is a doctor in Chicago) but now it seems vain, preposterous, especially when we look at what it has elected, twice!!

Black Mischief https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/black-mischief-by-evelyn-waugh-10-out.html comes to mind, the Black Chief from there is much more imposing, decent, cleverer than the Orange Clown, even when we consider one of the hilarious lines from Black Mischief, wherein one may ask about the rains, and it could be misinterpreted as an insult to one of the wives, the orange clown has just banned CNN from what used to be the White House

 

I have been reading The Poisonwood Bible https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/09/the-poisonwood-bible-by-barbara.html and I am tempted to compare Tata Ndu with Orange Joyboy, this leader we have – in what used to be the free world – is pathetic, worse than the character with no-glass glasses and the tail of an animal to chase insects

As for The Loved One, I was exhilarated the first time by this very notion, the fact that they call at the funeral parlor Loved Ones the departed ones, and they have this pompous, affected attitude when they deal with relatives, and everything else, perhaps I was wrong the second time, and if I take it for  a third ride I may enjoy it more, in the meantime, I am delighted by The Buddenbrooks https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/09/buddenbrooks-by-thomas-mann-is-one-of.html which is on a different, much higher level

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