Evelyn Waugh's "Scoop" (Scoop - Evelyn Waugh)

Member Name: jbsabbath

Product:	Scoop - Evelyn Waugh
Date:	19/08/08 (170 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Terrific plot, hilarious

Disadvantages: Probably not a true story

My first introduction into Evelyn Waugh's strange world of London journalism came with watching Stephen Fry's movie adaptation of "Vile Bodies", renamed "Bright Young Things" released in the UK in 2003.

What interested me was the eccentricity, not just of the variety of funny characters, but of the storyline itself, and how it twisted and turned and always felt fresh.

From then on, I always had it in my mind that one day I must read "Vile Bodies", the original novel, but instead the first piece of Waugh's work I ended up reading was "Scoop", a novel I knew nothing about plotwise, and had certainly never heard anything about either.

Nevertheless, I pressed on and eventually realised that I'd come across a masterpiece.

The whole plot revolves around a case of mistaken identity.

John Boot, author of such novels as "Waste of Time", recalling his months among the Patagonian Indians, asks a favour of his friend Mrs Stitch to convince Lord Copper of sending him to report on Ishmaelia.

Lord Copper, owner and chief editor of the Daily Beast, gets a tip that a young, up and coming new reporter by the surname Boot has hugely impressed the Prime Minister with his writings, and is convinced by Mrs Stitch that he would be perfect for the job of reporting for the paper on the brewing crisis in the African Republic.

Meanwhile, William Boot, a gentleman of the English countryside, prides himself on writing about the English countryside, and posting modest columns to the national newspaper.

This is his one enjoyment in life, so he is very surprised and horrified when he is called up to London, thrown a passport and a lot of money, and shipped off to Africa to report on a country and situation he knows nothing about.

So begins an adventure into the nature of journalism abroad, journalism at home, and the many crazy characters and situations between, all in the search of the title's big "Scoop", in order to secure one's name and position in the hierarchy of reporters.

The writing itself is sharp and witty and full of little one liners.

The characters are fresh and well-rounded, often hilarious and sometimes completely ridiculous.

I haven't come across anything that blends comedy and scathing satire so well, so that it never truly reaches something far too absurd and farcical to be believable, but rather always keeps a foot in the door of the real world.

It made me believe that something so ludicrous could actually happen.

Summary: A fantastic piece of mistaken identity