So in a recent chat, I mentioned that I had Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop
Dear Anonymous Reader:
You were right.
Keith
It’s been a while since I ripped through a classic novel the way I tore through Scoop last week. It is brilliant, hilarious, sublime, a pinpoint satire with an everpresent smirk. It’s the novel I wish I could write.
For those who, like me, were introduced to Waugh by means of the good but serious Brideshead Revisited
I’m hesitant to say anything more for fear of ruining any of the jokes. It’s a hilarious book, laugh-out-loud funny in many places, and amusing throughout, with shades of Wodehouse in the snarky prose and Molière’s touch for satire, with almost everyone and everything in the book looking like a sendup of someone or something else. My favorite joke in the book involves the Ishmaelian town of Laku, including the origin of its name. You’ll have to read the book to understand why, but you won’t regret the choice, either.
This is my favorite comic novel. I like the Laku article, but my favorite scene is Mr. Salter’s arrival in the countryside to look for Boot. I’ve reread that scene many times where Salter is forced to walk six miles to get to the house after the car sent to pick him up is piloted by a blind man and a belligerent child, who does not have a license after he injured the instructor while taking the driving exam.
Just finished this novel and loved, like Keith I tore through it in just a few days. I love how the shots at journalists, particularly those reporting from to foreign countries, hold up so well today (and may be even more relevant than when this novel was written).
The part of the book I enjoyed best was a short commentary on one reporter sent to write about a particular area, and missing his train stop.
Just finished Scoop at your recommendation Keith, and you were absolutely right about its brilliance. More than once I began laughing out loud (something I almost NEVER do when reading). I loved the dialogue about Laku but I had two personal favorites (mild spoiler alert):
1- That they managed to throw in a third Boot at the end for good measure, and one that could not possibly have been mistaken for either of the other two, and yet no one does anything about it because, to paraphrase Lord Copper, the story must go on.
2- The story about how Jakes went to the wrong city and basically fashioned a war that didn’t exist and the other reporters who showed up just followed suit with him.