What’s the Funniest Novel Ever? from the NYTBR

More stuff I've been meaning to share for weeks:

http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/whats-the-funniest-novel-ever/

The short article in the New York Times Book Review is predictably stuffy, but there are some great suggestions in the comments. Chris is mentioned at least 10 times.

Susan
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I wonder what Susan's reading:

http://inoneeyeouttheother.blogspot.com/

Well, I'm with 'em on Wodehouse and Waugh, Wonder Boys and Catch-22, and I thought Straight Man was excellent. Lucky Jim was good, but never had me in hysterics. And I did read Dead Souls by Gogol recently. Good, but not a laugh riot either. Maybe because I'm not Russian. Who knows...
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"If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

Kurt Vonnegut

Lucky Jim is one of my favorite books; I found it hilarious. It has some really great descriptive material, almost like the equivalent of slapstick. I've read it more than once.

What a great piece, although some of the choices mystify me.

Now I'm trying to think of a funny book by a woman. Dang!

Sara Leigh wrote:

Now I'm trying to think of a funny book by a woman. Dang!

oooh! ooooh! I know one!
All Encompassing Trip by Nicole Del Sesto

I had to rack my brain to come up with any others, though. Barbara Kingsolver has written some pretty funny stuff, but not enough in any one of her books to consider it one of the funniest I've read.

I do have to admit that a Maeve Binchey book once left me on the floor in a fit of laughter. I don't remember what book it was, anymore, because the lady I was living with at the time was reading it while I was reading Coyote Blue. She got fed up with my interrupting her reading with my laughter, that she pantomimed smacking me upside the head with her book. However, the book slipped out of her hand and did hit me on the forehead.
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Avoid being normal -- John Lennon

mary roach writes good non fiction. bonk had me laughing a couple of times.
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"protestant heaven is in the basement of catholic heaven."
my dad

"there's just one more thing.... it's been emotional." lock stock and 2 smoking barrels

Sara Leigh wrote:

Now I'm trying to think of a funny book by a woman. Dang!

Well, it isn't all funny, but Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson had a few scenes in it that had me in hysterical laughter.
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"If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

Kurt Vonnegut

I have to go look at my bookshelves. I know there's something there. I know women are very funny!

JennyO wrote:

Well, I'm with 'em on Wodehouse and Waugh, Wonder Boys and Catch-22, and I thought Straight Man was excellent. Lucky Jim was good, but never had me in hysterics. And I did read Dead Souls by Gogol recently. Good, but not a laugh riot either. Maybe because I'm not Russian. Who knows...

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons?

Yes! How could I forget. Love that book.

"I saw something nasty in the woodshed."

Funny Women

Three favorites off the top of my head:

Winner of the National Book Award - Jincy Willette
Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
Good in Bed - Jennifer Weiner

And I agree, anything by Jane Austen. Still, I admit it's a short list. I'll concede that men do funny better. There are a few other female writers from the world of film and television that might be added to the list--Lisa Lutz, Merrill Markoe, and Patricia Marx come immediately to mind.

Susan
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I wonder what Susan's reading:

http://inoneeyeouttheother.blogspot.com/

Booksellers love Chris

From today's Shelf Awareness:

Robert Gray: Seeking Venture Capital for FunReads Bookshop
With more than a hundred recommendations received thus far here at Fun Book Central, our list has become impressively long-tailed (with apologies to Chris Anderson). So if anybody wants to pony up some venture capital in this thriving economy, have I got a niche bookstore concept for you--FunReads Bookshop.

The clear leader (the head of the long tail, as it were) at this point is author Christopher Moore. Sue Gazell of BookMan, Nashville, Tenn., calls him "my pick for fun fiction, hands down. He's a scream. My favorite is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal."

Exclamation points flying, Alice Meyer of Beaverdale Books, Des Moines, Iowa, is just one of many readers who agree: "Christopher Moore! Especially, after I get 'a sense of the wind and the water', Lamb."

Angela Cozad of Lafayette Book Store, Lafayette, Calif., adds, "Here are a couple of titles that I like to promote as fun: Christopher Moore's Lamb and Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. They are only by coincidence a religious theme but they are hilarious. Definitely laugh out loud. Another fun book is Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold. Lots of fun!"

While conceding that, "as you said, it's all subjective, this idea of a 'fun' read," PGW sales rep Cindy Heidemann recommends "any Christopher Moore." Her list also features The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar, Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.

And Aaron Curtis of Books & Books, Coral Gables, Fla., offers the following "faithfuls": "Christopher Moore's Lamb, if they don't take religion too seriously; Carl Hiaasen's Sick Puppy, if they don't take animal rights and environmentalism too seriously; Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series--seriously. If they really want to be just silly about the whole thing, then I'll recommend Mario Acedvedo's X-Rated Blood Suckers . . . if they don't take porn and vampires too seriously."

If Moore is at the top of the list in terms of popular vote, perhaps the dark horse candidate is Jonathan Tropper, whose novel, The Book of Joe, has been cited by many, including Carol Schneck of Schuler Books and Music, Okemos, Mich. She calls it one of "two that never fail," along with Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo.

Come to think of it, where is Russo? That's what author Linda Urban (formerly of Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, Calif.) wonders: "Nobody has yet mentioned Straight Man by Richard Russo? My all-time favorite funny book. Still plenty of depth and literary showmanship, but at the gut-level a flat-out hilarious read."

Urban reminds us not to forget "middle grade novels for a good laugh! Many are written with as much depth and insight as novels for grown-ups, but young people's writers are some of the best at mixing in the humor. Two of my favorites are Sue Stauffacher's Donuthead and Gary Paulsen's Lawn Boy. (There's a little lesson in the stock market for Lawn Boy readers that may make it especially timely--although maybe a little less funny.) For even younger readers, Sara Pennypacker's Stuart's Cape is filled with the sort of surreal humor that grown-ups love in Terry Pratchett, while Christopher Paul Curtis's Mr. Chickee series is sure to be a hit with dads and sons who bond over a good joke."

Speaking of Pratchett, he's been getting plenty of attention here as well. Deborah Andolino of Aliens & Alibis Books, Columbia, S.C., says "his books are wonderful--and laugh-out-loud funny. Pratchett's audience is growing in the U.S., which I am happy to see."

Read "just about anything in the Discworld," suggests Gavin Grant of Small Beer Press. "If readers are willing to give this a shot (and after the Lord of the Rings films we know that millions of people know who elves and dwarfs and so on are), they'll find rich characters facing a challenging and changing world. Filled with one-liners."

Suzanne Schwalb, editor at Peter Pauper Press, concurs: "How about Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books? They make me laugh out loud. Some of the most fun I've had reading (or listening to them in audio form) since giggling over Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a child."

Perhaps giggling over books is a good prescription for readers of any age. Another Pratchett fan, Stephanie Anderson of the Moravian Book Shop, Bethlehem Pa., adds that "if YA counts here, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is easily one of the top three funniest books I read in the last few years. I had to keep putting it down so I wouldn't lose my place when I was laughing!"

Imagine opening a bookstore just for laughs. Funny money indeed.--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)
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I wonder what Susan's reading:

http://inoneeyeouttheother.blogspot.com/

"Catch-22" has something in common with the AG and Douglas Adams, in that it is in many places fall-down funny, but other places really strike serious emotional chords of fear, terror, and pathos. One reason I was so glad to discover Moore is that I didn't think anyone would ever be able to contest with Adams for that combination. While it shows in the more famous Hitch-Hiker books, I personally think it comes out even more in the "Dirk Gently" books, and most of all in his brilliant non-fiction work "Last Chance to See." Which you should all read, right now. Go!
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Good Mungle blaith our meathalls
Woof mebble morn so green the wheel
Staggaboon undie some grapeload
To get a little feel
of my own faulty bagnose.

Non-fiction, but hilarious: "I like You" by Amy Sedaris.


The funniest, most laughs per page, I'd go with "Hitchhiker's G2TG", "Confederacy of Dunces", or "You Suck."
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Homeless people need more seasoning, use bath salts.