Dennis Barlow

Dennis Barlow is a twenty-eight year-old Englishman who has come to Los Angeles after writing a well-received book of poems while he was in a non-combatant posting with the British armed forces during World War II. Barlow is hired by a Hollywood studio to write a screenplay for a film on the life of the poet Percy Shelley, but he quickly becomes disillusioned by the tedium and lack of imagination in the studio system. Apparently, he quit the job, although later in the novel, other characters suggest that his contract was not renewed. He takes a job at a pet cemetery, which is regarded by others in Hollywood's British film community as an embarrassment for all of them. Dennis is not high-principled and sees no problem at all with his job. He becomes enamored of a young woman named Aimée Thanatogenos, who works at a funeral...