The Loved - One - of my favorites

I really think this is my favorite book of all that we read this semester and I don't really have an exact reason why. The focus on class and respectable employment gets turned upside-down by the course of the story. Dennis had taken on his shameful job at the pet crematorium, but later that job would save one of the very same people who looked down on that business. I guess that I like the justice, the tidy way it all wraps up. The "good guy" (if there is one) Dennis receives a decent lump of money to take back to England. Joyboy has nothing left but his mom and her bird, and the thought of the woman he loved being disposed of like a dog. The self-centered and more than a little pretentious Aimee brought herself to an end.
The absurdity of it all and the focus on appearances unfolds nicely and the thought of receiving a postcard every year for a pet, let alone a person that says that he/she is wagging her tail in heaven means that even if Joyboy is able to push it out of his head for months at a time, there will always be a yearly reminder.
One of the pretentious aspects of Aimee that I found very amusing is that she puts so much value in Dennis' ability to write and recite poems for her, but if she truly had any interest in poetry, she would have recognized those lines and not needed Joyboy to reveal the truth to her.
I also really liked Mr. Schultz's view of Whispering Glades vs Happier Hunting Ground. For most of us with pets, they do bring us more joy and love than the people in our lives, but we wouldn't think of just digging an unceremonious hole for a person. It brings up an interesting issue, that the social expectations are really what determines funeral arrangements, not actual love or respect for the person who died.
The warning at the beginning of the book is a great tool to help the reader get through the first chapter - at that point its not always clear who is speaking and it's a rather boring conversation, but with the previous warning against the gruesome parts, as a reader you know its going to get better.
One part I thought was not exactly believable was when Joyboy was making all of the corpses for Aimee smile. It wouldn't work out- families asked for a specific facial expression and there are many people who wouldlook absurd smiling through death. But I suppose it was further emphasis on his creepy forms of flirting.