Scoop (Heritage of Literature S.)

by Evelyn Waugh

[brokentune]

Review was first posted on BookLikes:
http://brokentune.booklikes.com/post/832451/scoop


For nearly two weeks now, the bent and creased copy of Scoop sitting on my desk has been staring at me. Patiently. Waiting whether I was going to write a review or not.

On finishing the book I had exactly two feelings about it:

1. As far as satire of the press goes, Waugh created the most delicious and entertaining spoof I could have imagined. However,

2. This book contained so many openly racist and chauvinist remarks that even Fleming's Live and Let Die (which I had finished just before Scoop) looks like an enlightened and unbiased work promoting intercultural understanding.

For the best part of the last two weeks, I have looked at my old copy of Scoop and wondered whether to chuck it onto the charity shop pile or straight into the bin. It's not a book I would recommend unreservedly. Even looking at Waugh as a representative of a time when sentiments of racial or cultural stereotyping were common and widely accepted, I wonder whether there was a need for it in Scoop because this was not a part of the book that was satirical. Or, if it was, this did not come across well.

So, while I am glad that I have read Scoop, I expected more. Much more.