by Evelyn Waugh
First published 2001
Dennis Barlow, a struggling British poet in Los Angeles, finds himself working at a lavish pet cemetery after his uncle's abrupt suicide. Navigating the bizarre world of California funeral industries, Dennis becomes entangled with Aimée Thanatogenous, a beautiful mortuary worker with her own complex romantic life. As he manipulates the grotesque machinery of death and memorial, Dennis discovers a darkly comic landscape where sentimentality collides with commercial opportunism. His outsider's perspective transforms from bemused observation to calculated manipulation, turning the funeral business into his personal theater of the absurd.
Genres: fiction, satire, literary-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: darkly-comedic, thought-provoking, unsettling
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, manipulation, social-commentary
Setting: Africa, London, Los Angeles
Period: 20th-century
127 pages · Paperback · Penguin Classic