The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (novel #183)

The subtitle calls this, An Anglo-American Tragedy

I beg to differ. It’s a comic novel.

Waugh says of it…

The tale should not be read as a satire on morticians but as a study of the Anglo-American cultural impasse with the mortuary as a jolly setting.

But again, I beg to differ – which perhaps adds validity to the notion of an Anglo-American Cultural Impasse.

Waugh also said it was

...much the most offensive work I had done.

Dennis Barlow, a once successful poet, and an out-of-work British screenwriter in Hollywood takes work at a pet mortuary – The Happier Hunting Grounds. Dennis must make funeral arrangements for his fellow Briton, and roommate, a washed-up screenwriter, who committed suicide after being unceremoniously fired. Arrangements are handled by the Whispering Glades mortuary and cemetery, a thinly veiled portrayal of Forrest Lawn (Waugh’s inspiration), the over-the-top, opulent resting place for Southern California’s rich and beautiful. While making arrangements, Dennis develops a crush on Aimée Thanatogenos, Whispering Glades star cosmetician, who has also caught the eye of head mortician, Mr. Joyboy. Aimée is confused by her own emotions, and repeatedly writes a local advice columnist.

 

Empty-headed Aimée is further confused when she learns Mr. Joyboy lives with his overbearing mother, and Dennis’ love poems to her are not his own, but the work of England’s glorious dead poets. And although she never learns it, her advice columnist is a drunken, insensitive hack.

 

Does that sound like tragedy or comedy? I suppose I should defer to the author, but I thought it was fun and funny, reminiscent of Nathanael West or Kingsley Amis – quite unlike my other experiences with Evelyn Waugh. [Brideshead Revisited, A Handful of Dust]

 

My rating: 3 1/2 of 5 stars

 

This book satisfies a humorous or satirical classic in Back to the Classics Challenge 2021, and book with “One” in the title for the What’s in a Name? 2021 challenge.

 

I’ll share one excerpt. The unofficial head of the British enclave in Hollywood attempts to admonish Dennis for his undignified job, and relates how a previous chap, embarrassed his fellow Britons:

 

Clever chap, be he went completely native – wore ready-made shoes, and a belt instead of braces, went about without a tie, ate at drugstores.

 

Now that’s funny.

 

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Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle (novel #182)

We owned Barrytown, the whole lot of it. It went on forever. It was a country. ~ Patrick (Paddy)
Clarke on his boyhood realm.

 

Oh my, but this book is reminiscent of my own childhood – in spite of the fact that Paddy grew up in Dublin, and I in southwest Michigan. That’s the charm – people are not that different. From the boy on the cover – who could easily be me age 10, to the “tribe” of innocent terrors – like my own gang, the teachers we hated, family meals, cut knees, fights at schools, torturing little brothers, idolizing dads, loving moms…growing up.

 

I’ve said before, I was Tom Sawyer growing up, but the era is wrong. I was more like Paddy Clarke.

 

The narrative is just a hodgepodge of Paddy’s memories, generally, but not precisely chronological. As I’ve said, it was reminiscent of my own childhood, sometimes quite specifically as when Paddy recounts summer-long sewer construction on his street – yep me too; my buddies and I played in the in the forbidden trenches; my best friend broke his arm.

 

I remember, the world shrinking. Paddy recounts…

 

Our territory was getting smaller.

 

There was another tribe there now, tougher than us, though none of us said it. Our territory was being taken from us but we were fighting back. We played Indians and Cowboys now, not Cowboys and Indians.

 

Bikes became important, our horses.

 

Ah yes! bikes were independence.

 

It is about the innocence of youth. Paddy thought…

 

I thought that the Americans were fighting gorillas in Vietnam.

 

Me too.

 

It was an idyllic life.

 

Until, the comfort and security begins to erode. This is where Paddy’s story and my own diverge. 

 

Patrick notices the growing strife between his ma and da: beautifully and tragically recorded through the eyes of the innocent.

 

I loved him. He was my da. It didn’t make sense. She was my ma.

 

She was lovely. He was nice.

 

It wasn’t lots of little fights. It was one big one, rounds of the same fight.

 

What was wrong with her?

Nothing. She was lovely looking, though it was hard to tell for sure. She made lovely dinners. The house was clean, the grass cut and straight and she always left some daisies in the middle because Catherine liked them. She didn’t shout like some of the other mas. She didn’t wear trousers with no fly. She wasn’t fat. She never lost her temper for long. I thought about it: she was the best ma around here. She really was; I didn’t just reach that conclusion because she was mine. She was.

 

There must have been something wrong with her, at least one thing. I couldn’t see it. I wanted to. I wanted to understand. I wanted to be on both sides. He was my da. 

 

It’s beautiful, heartbreaking, and poignant.

 

My Dad told me the best gift a father can give his child is to love their mother. Thanks Dad!

 

My rating: 3 1/2 of 5 stars

 

This book satisfies a title with a repeated word, in the What’s in a Name? 2021 challenge.

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Top 10 Fathers from Classic Lit – NOVA this week (June 20, 2021)

Observations from my weekly wanderings, mostly in Northern Virginia

 

And this week, for Father’s Day – My Top 10 Fathers from Classic Lit

 

10. Colonel Aureliano Buendia from One-Hundred Years of Solitude

 

9. Kostantin Levin from Anna Karenina

 

8. Seymour (Swede) Levov from American Pastoral

 

7. Stephen Kumalo from Cry, the Beloved Country

 

6. Theoden from The Lord of the Rings

 

5. Father Joseph Vaillant from Death Comes for the Archbishop

 

4. Charles Halloway from Something Wicked this way Comes

 

3. Bob Cratchitt from A Christmas Carol

 

2. Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird

 

1. Clarence from my yet unwritten novel

The Boxcombe Valley Mystery – a Sherlock Holmes short story

"The Boxcombe Valley Mystery" is a Sherlock Holmes short story and part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection. According to The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, it was Holmes 22nd case chronologically.

 

Evidence for the murder of John Turner is overwhelming against the victim’s son, James Turner. Yet James, and the beautiful daughter of the county’s most prominent citizen, insist he is innocent. Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard, calls in Holmes to satisfy the young woman, but Lestrade is incredulous – the guilt of James Turner is beyond reasonable doubt.

 

And of course, you can guess the outcome – but not the details, which as always makes for interesting reading. In the end, it is one of those rare cases, but not the only one, where Holmes ignores the letter of the law, to serve the higher standard of justice. Holmes satisfies his own obsession of solving the mystery, but discreetly withholds everything he has learned, and can prove, to protect the innocent. 

 

Well worth the read.

 

Trivia: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never described Holmes wearing a deerstalker hat
that is so iconic to the world’s greatest detective. It is this adventure, "The Boxcombe Valley Mystery", that gave birth to the legend – by no design of the author. In the narrative, Holmes’ colleague and chronicler Dr. Watson – describes Holmes…

Sherlock Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey traveling-cloak and close-fitting cap.

 

That’s all the detail Watson provides. It is the Sherlock Holmes illustrator Sidney Paget, who portrayed it as a deerstalker. Filmmakers in England and Hollywood latched on to the look, and made it legend.

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The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf (novel #181)

(translated from the Swedish by Velma Swanston Howard)

 

Once there was a boy. He was – let us say – something like fourteen years old; long and loose jointed and towheaded. He wasn’t good for much, that boy. His chief delight was to eat and sleep; and after that – he liked best to make mischief.

 

This children’s book was originally written and published as two: The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, and Further Adventures of Nils. My version, like most today, is combined into one. It’s also a sneaky book, intended to teach Swedish children about Swedish geography, topography, and spelling. But it is disguised as a fanciful story that would appeal to children. 

 

It is set in very early 20th Century Sweden, and is of course, the adventures of Nils – Nils Holgersson. Nils as you can see from the quotation, was a mischievous lad, and a source of sorrow and concern for his parents. His chief form of mischief was tormenting the animals on the family farm. One day while left alone, he captures a magical elf, who eventually turns the tables, and turns Nils into an elf. Tiny elf Nils discovers he can talk to the animals, and learns they are none too anxious to help him. 

 

And then the real adventure begins. One of the tame geese, Morten-Goosey-gander, takes off to follow a flock of wild geese, with Nils on his back. Neither Goosey-gander, nor the wild geese are keen to have Nils along, but he eventually makes himself useful, and they develop a mutual devotion and loyalty. There are many adventures, perils, and comic circumstance along the way, as Nils becomes a kind and compassionate human being. 

 

I think the purpose of Lagerlöf’s writing was a noble effort. I don’t think it would teach much geography, if the children didn’t read it with a map at hand – but perhaps that was the norm. If I were starting over, I’d read it with a map. I can’t say I enjoyed it much, but I wouldn’t expect to. Lagerlöf weaves some Scandinavian folk-legend into the tale that I found interesting, but that was about it. I believe it’s an important work. Glad to have read it, glad to be done.

 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 

This book satisfies A Children’s Classic in the Back to the Classics Challenge 2021.

 

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