“But there is another issue, too: one for which you can’t blame publishers or booksellers. The thing about being funny is that it’s really hard.
“It’s a lot harder than being serious. It requires wit, grace, agility, sensitivity; it requires knowing how hard to push and when to stop on a dime.”
Another strong argument to be made for the importance of comic literature at The Times.
A lot of people who come into my store ask me for recommendations and frequently their specifics are extremely vague. All they know is they like “funny” but not “dark” or that they’re looking for “just a vacation” book, so nothing too heavy.
Mostly, they want something humorous. . . and I hesitate and perhaps for too long. They’ve already read Catch-22 — or we’re out of Jonathan Ames. Then I’m really stumped and I stand their flailing.
Yes, they’ve read David Sedaris but have never heard of Christopher Moore and honestly I haven’t read him so I can’t, in good faith recommend him.
If I can’t think of anything, I fall back on a book I read as an adolescent that I can’t say was exactly funny, but is considered a comic masterpiece nonetheless: A Confederacy Of Dunces.
But in general, I find it really difficult to think of comic literature that I have either read or that I think is that good.
Maybe it’s because I think that laughs don’t just come one right after another. Or at least intelligent laughter doesn’t follow in indefinite sequences of hilarity. If it does, it strikes me as artificial, a put-on. Real laughs are abutted by the tragic or occur in the midst of loss. Sometimes you laugh when you’re in agony. Other times you weep from hysterics.
In a sense, I find myself believing you can’t have strong humor without also a heavy doses of pain and death. This must mean I lean more to the darkly humorous? Not sure.
But it’s the same for me with erotica. I don’t get many kicks out of an “erotic novel” of wall-to-wall sex when there are no other supporting dramas or emotions other than pure tantalization. When the sex isn’t rife with all of life’s other complexities, including humor and death, I find it just cookie-cutter and stale.
All that being said I’d like to read more comical books. Maybe my tastes just veer too dark and odd? I mean, if I think Beckett is really funny, does that mean I’m a little sick?
20 responses
A few of my comic favorites: Cintra Wilson’s Colors Insulting to Nature; Charlie Williams’ Deadfolk trilogy.
Light House by William Monahan. The Financial Lives of Poets by Jess Walter. Lamb by Christopher Moore.
Exley’s “A Fan’s Notes” has to rank up there for me.
“It Was Like My Trying to Have a Tender-Hearted Nature”, by Diane Williams is pretty hilarious.
Also enjoyed “Wrong Information is Being Given Out at Princeton”, by J.P. Donleavy (who also wrote the humorous “The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms,” though he is best known for his book “The Ginger Man”).
As for your taste for strong humor with heavy doses of pain and death, that’s got to be DFW’s “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.” John Irving’s “The World According to Garp” meets your criterion, as well, I think.
Flann O’Brian’s The Third Policeman does it for me despite being very bleak and surreal. i agree with Beckett. he doesn’t have a reputation for being a barrel of laughs but there’s a lot of gallows humour in there that often gets missed, this excerpt from “Watt” for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVI5cz8H0M4
of living writers the Kiwi writer Paul Ewen is brilliant, a bit demented and criminally overlooked, well worth checking out. read his “London Pub Reviews” on bus to work and kept having to hold laughter in in case people thought I’d escaped from some kind of institution. there’s definitely a thin line between grimness and humour.
“Home Land” by Sam Lipsyte! Haven’t read “Ask” yet. Jonathan Ames’ “Wake Up, Sir!” was very funny, especially after a P.G. Wodehouse refresher. I think “Infinite Jest” is a comic masterpiece, but I guess one wouldn’t recommend it for someone looking for “funny” books. In the non-fiction arena, Bill Bryson is my favorite laugh-out-loud writer.
The great American novel is “Sleep Til Noon” by Max Schulman, it’s just that only a few people know this: http://www.librarything.com/work/1088607 Written around 1950. Schulman wrote a bunch of comic books, but this one is more than that somehow. It’s extremely funny, but also as caustic as “Howl.” I also love JP Donleavy, and would recommend “A Fairytale of New York,” in part because it inspired the title of The Pogues’ classic song. I agree that Becket is very funny, but I’ve found that you can really annoy your friends calling them on the phone to read passages from “The Unnameable.” Sartre’s “Nausea” completely freaked me out when I was 20 and had me howling when I was 40. “Ferdedurkye” (sp?) by the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz is great and dark and very funny, as is “At Swim Two Birds” by Flann O’Brien. Wodehouse, very funny! Then of course, you could do yourself the favor of reading or re-reading some early Dickens. “The Old Curiosity Shop” and “Martin Chuzzlewit” are both very funny, and creepy, too!
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is great for laughs, as is The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace.
“Love Warps the Mind a Little” is hilarious. I also laughed through “Behind the Scenes at the Museum” until the end when I cried and cried (it’s not a sad ending though).
Here are my recommendations:
Life is a Strange Place by Frank Turner Hollon
http://tinyurl.com/lifeisastrangeplace
My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl
http://tinyurl.com/myuncleoswald
The Magic Christian by Terry Southern
http://tinyurl.com/ye7eqys
Death: A Life by George Pendle
http://tinyurl.com/deathalife
For some laugh-out-loud nonfiction (fiction) try:
Dot.Conned by Diana Grove
http://tinyurl.com/yeombjx
“Straight Man” by Richard Russo is the funniest fiction I’ve ever read in addition to being a perfect novel. I strongly recommend it.
I found Greald Durrell’s My Family and Other Things really hilarious. So also most of his other naturo-comedies.
Writing comedy is quite a tough ask and what you deem funny in your head might not appear funny to a reader. So how do you decide what is funny?
Oh I forgot another of my favourites- The Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle. Complete win!
As many times as I’ve re-read it, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series always makes me laugh out loud.
Great article. We so need humor in the book world. I just finished reading a really great one called, “The Little Book of Death,” a very funny read about one man’s very quick death. It really made me think about life after death. You should check it out!
Myriad Sprite’s “The Occasionally Disgusting Adventures of Brian and Sprig” is completely hilarious and well worth a read. I mean…oh! No wait – I think I wrote it. Perhaps I’m a bit biased. My heroes were ‘Douglas Adam’s’ “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” and anything by the great ‘Tom Sharpe’. Writing humor is difficult enough, but getting people interested in your work is even harder. For anybody interested in a novel that is just – well – wrong! please check out ‘T.O.D.A.O.B.A.S.’ at:
http://www.amazon.com/Occasionally-Disgusting-Adventures-Brian-Sprig/dp/1451564171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281244154&sr=8-1
the funniest book i’ve ever read is The Porridge King by RD Winfrey. it is a great story with a ton of hilarious situations, interactions and jokes. It is a fantasy story of sorts but takes place in a world where just about anything can happen, and often does. You can read a large sample for free at:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/28821
MAlice in Blunderland by Jonny Gibbings, with out doubt the funniest book ever. If you like dark, it will push your limits of humor.
I’ll probably get kicked out of the room, but Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde.
i think all good comedy is threaded with dark and depth. anything roddy doyle (paddy clark ha ha ha, the abovementioned barrytown trilogy, a star called henry). recently, kevin wilson’s “the family fang.” i’ve laughed out loud reading iris murdoch. nick hornby, of course. loved james kennedy’s “the order of odd-fish.” “skippy dies” by paul murray. “the dud avocado” by elaine dundy. aimee bender.
lydia davis isn’t “light” or humorous, necessarily, but there’s a kind of brightness to her writing. neil gaiman also isn’t quite humor, but he’s fast-paced and accessible.
for non-fiction/essays, in the sedaris vein(ish): sarah vowell, bill bryson, susan orlean, elna baker, rhoda janzen, ruth reichl, anne lamott
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