Synopses & Reviews
In Hollywood, at Whispering Glades, a full-service funeral home for departed greats, the mononymonous Mr. Joyboy and Aimee Thanatogenos fall in love...with each other and their work. He is chief embalmer, she a crematorium cosmetician. They spend their days contentedly prepping the loved ones for a final appearance.
Into this idyllic scene comes Denis Barlow, aspiring poet and funerary colleague. But Denis is downscale, his employer the Happier Hunting Ground, a pet cemetery. Denis looks to Aimee for professional reconstruction, falls in love with her instead, and sets up a triangle that is literally more than Aimee can bear.
Review
"A fiendishly entertaining book...Evelyn Waugh has never written more brilliantly. Devilishly, impishly amusing." The New York Times
Synopsis
Mr. Joyboy, an embalmer, and Aimee Thanatogenos, crematorium cosmetician, find their romance complicated by the appearance of a young English poet.
About the Author
As a comic writer, satirist and master of English prose, Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) has been admired more than any other novelist of his generation. His celebrated novels include Vile Bodies, A Handful of Dust and Scoop. He also wrote numerous travel books and biographies, as well as his Diaries and Letters.