Alot like Fargo

For me The Loved One was alot like the movie Fargo. Both are blacker than black comedies that you feel bad about smirking about. I first read The Loved One in high school and I remembered liking it, but not this much. Waugh very cleverly pokes fun at American culture (or perhaps more accurately, lack thereof.) I agree with some of the other bloggers that the book starts very slow, I personally read the first fifty pages over the course of three or four days, but once things picked up I finished out the last hundred or so in one sitting. I really liked the several hideously hilarious scenes in the book, (e.g. when Amy Thatagenos goes from glum to beaming when she receives a smiling cadaver from Mr. Joyboy, or Dennis' poem about Sir Frances being painted like a whore.)

All in all a very entertaining, albeit brief, read.