Evening star., 1948-06-27
SHken, Savage
Philippe Anent.
OurFoIkwoys
THE LOVED ONE
BY Evelyn Waugh. little, Brown
e. Co.. S2.50.)
Reviewed by
MARY McGRORY.

This novelette, is a bread-and-
butter letter to America written
In gall and wormwood by the
distinguished British author
Evelyn Waugh, who became IA
nous here through "Brideshead
Revisited the least typical of his
brilliant satiric novels. Soon after
the appearance of this profound and
sparkling study of the effects of
grace on an English family, he went
to Hollywood to discuss its filming
on his own terms. The picture was
never made, but his trip was pro-
ductive of this silken, savage philip
pic on our folkways. Not since the
days of Dickens and Martin Chuz-
zlewit has a leading English writer
expressed such stern disapproval of
the American way of life or death.
The publicity which attended Mr..
Waugh's passage to the film capital
revealed him to be a fabulous per-
sonality of aristocratic and irascible
temper. The story of his conversion
to Catholicism and his almost fool
hardy bravery in the recent war
whetted public curiosity about his
findings on the American scene,
until THE Loved One" became, in
advance of publication, one of the
years most-talked-of novels. When
an entire issue of Horizon, the Brit
ish literary monthly, was devoted to
1t, the whole edition was sold out.
Values Totally Upset.
Slight but soaring, The Loved
= One" is in the vein of Mr.. Waugh's
earlier, blandly mad novels of the
prewar smart set in England. Here,
as in vile Bodies" "A Handful of
Dust" and Decline and Fall" NOR
ais and values are totally upset, the
wicked prosper and justice is lunatic
rather than poetic. In an unchar-
acteristically explanatory foreword
he describes 1t as "a little night
mare produced by the unaccustomed
high living of a brief visit to Hol-
lywood," and warns away the
squeamish. But his fastidjous ar
tistry should make palatable the
bitter criticism which he has voiced
in this gruesomely hilarious ro-
nance of a British poet who serves
as mortician in pets cemetery
and an American cosmetician in the
"bustling, hygienic Eden" that is
whispering Glades, last resting
place of prosperous Caucasians.
Through his soulless hero, Dennis
Barlow, Mr.. Waugh derides the
sape- wearing, cricket-playing Brit
ish set of Hollywood, who conduct
themselves as though on the frontier
of some dark land. Dennis rival
for the love of Aimee Thanatogenos
is Mr. Joyboy, the senior mortician
at whispering Glades, who arranges
all the faces of the corpses in the
smile of Radiant Childhood" to
greet Aimee as she goes to work
with her paints. The resolution of
this triangle is one of the grisliest
in all of Mr.. Waugh's considerable
repertory of shocking climaxes.
Improving on Nature.
If Mr.. Waugh observed anything
admirable in California he does not
mention it. What seems to have
enraged him most is the Americans
arrogant attempt to improve on ma
ture. He notes the fanatic insist
ence of making the dead lifelike at
whispering Glades, the attendants
spraying scent of lilacs, the impor-
tation Of European masterpieces
with all depressing" and "incon-
venient" aspects removed. He seems
to have found our life singularly in
sipid, robbed of all flavor by stand
ard product, vacuous women, stone
less peaches, beeless beehives and
nonsectarian clergymen.
1.-THE Loved One" is elegantly and
economically written satire with a
deadly sting. 1t should not result
in Mr.. Waugh's being invited back.
From internal evidence 1t must be
said that he probably won't mind
bit.
THE ART OF ADVENTURE