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Home , Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, James Thurber, Richard Russo, Skinny Dip (novel), Skin Tight (novel), Strip Tease (novel)

Inkslinger THE Spring 2013

1511 South 1500 East Salt Lake City, UT 84105 Book Review 801-484-9100

I always read with a grin. A reporter and later columnist for the Herald, Hiaasen knows the dark, tawdry underbelly of the Sunshine State like only a native who What’s So really loves the place can. Both his adult and award-winning juve- nile fiction revolve around the despoiling of paradise by develop- ers and their toadies in the State House. His characters, like the one-eyed former governor who subsists on roadkill while lurking Funny???? in the , are memorable. Any of his books are comic thrill rides, but the one that opens with a wife treading water as Compiled by Anne Holman she watches the cruise ship she was recently aboard sail off into the night is a good place to start: .

Pat Bagley, ace editorial cartoonist at The Salt Lake Tribune There are a lot of re- ally funny books out there; I’d Two words: Straight toss out a few. For contemporary, Man. Two more: Richard how about ’s Straight Russo. I read it once a year, just to Man, Sam Lipsyte’s The Ask or Maria laugh at all the absurdities and foibles Semple’s, Where’d You Go, Bernadette. of my chosen academic profession. And For slightly older books, you can’t go wrong to remind myself not to take any of it too with ’s A Confederacy seriously. of Dunces or Tom Sharpe’s hilarious . P.S. I also laughed out loud at The Financial Lives of And for really old–Cervantes’ Don the Poets, but I can’t remember the author’s name. Quixote and Laurence Sterne’s First name that starts with J, last name that Tristram Shandy. starts with W? Editor’s note: It’s Jess Walter! Jess Walter, We Live in Kimberly Johnson, Water: Stories A Metaphorical God: Poems

Richard Russo’s Straight Man, set on the campus of a small college in a delightfully dysfunctional English I have two favorites, department, is a seriously funny tickle-the-funnybone-wise: novel. And it gets even more hilari- Straight Man by Richard Russo... ous with age—its own (15 or so) and especially funny if you have any ties mine (you don’t really need it for to or experience with this survey, do you?) academia. Anne Brillinger, bookseller Skippy Dies by Paul Murray...an uproar- iously funny book about the school- boys in England. Bruce Machart, The Wake of Forgiveness

—2— www.kingsenglish.com Up Front I recommend Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple—simply hilarious! It’s been a long winter and boy, are we Jennet Conant, A Covert Affair: Julia Child ready for daffodils and warmer days. and Paul Child in the OSS To that end we thought you (and we) could use a laugh or two. We posed this question to writers and booksellers: A request we often hear at the bookstore is “Why is fiction always so serious? I want to read something funny! So with that in Where’d You Go, mind, what piece of fiction has tickled your funny bone? We’ll tell Bernadette! LOVED you ours if you tell us yours!” this book! We’ve posted their answers here. Most, but not every book, is still Anne Zimmerman, in print and we’ll have piles of them at the bookstore. And we’ll M.F.K. Fisher: ask you too! What piece of fiction makes you laugh? Musings on Wine and The Editors Other Libations

Sue’s List

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared Minding Mama Where’d You Go, Bernadette is very, very funny. The Weird Sisters Mudslides, penguins, and a virtual assistant in India combined with a girl named Bee and a brilliant but The Uncommon Reader agoraphobic architect living in an Addams Family The Case of the Missing Books mansion make for LOL one-liners. Jenny Lyons, bookseller Three Bags Full

Tortilla Flat Ah, that’s an easy one­—but my guess is you’ll get The Pickwick Papers this response from many a Seattleite. Portland has Portlandia; Seattle has Maria Semple’s Lamb Where’d You Go, Bernadette. Hilarious, snarky, Mrs. Queen Takes the Train fast-paced and big-hearted, the novel skewers the Emerald City, private schools, big software A Spot of Bother companies and blackberry bushes as it makes its way through a web of emails, journal entries and The Absolutely True Story letters in an attempt to find the elusive Berna- of a Part-Time Indian dette, once architect, now a mother who most definitely has not stayed at home. Skinny Dip Erica Baumeister, The Lost Art of Mixing The Finkler Question

Last Night at the Lobster Where’d You Go, Bernadette, truly funny. Also, these The Lonely Polygamist titles may have already been mentioned: This Is Where I Leave You, , most of Dog on It ’s short stories; and right now I’m read- Sean Griswold’s Head ing a clever AND comical book, Beautiful Ruins. Dawn Houghton, bookseller, founder–Bookwagon.org Austenland Sue Fleming, bookseller 1511 South, 1500 East, Salt Lake City, Utah | 801-484-9100 —3— But it’s so difficult. Really hard to say. I like Carl Hiaasen quite a bit, particularly and . Also Vonnegut, Twain, and Evanovich. But the last novel I read that made me laugh out loud was Christopher Moore’s Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal. Then of course there’s the Old Testament, but you have to be in the right frame of mind for it…Oh, and Joseph Wambaugh’s The Choirboys.

Robert Kirby, Salt Lake Tribune columnist and all around funny guy I am guessing you see Tropper on a lot of lists, so I am going with Carl Hiaasen and Skinny Dip! And on the YA side, Swim the Fly, by Don Calame, laugh-out-loud funny for anyone who deals with early teen boys, with apologies to that demographic! Margaret Brennan Neville, bookseller

- The funniest thing I heard was when Dave Bar ry was promoting Insane City, he quoted Carl Hiaasen as saying that if you lived in Miami you didn’t need an imagination, all you had to do was read the Miami Herald. Since in this house- hold, we get most of our plots from newspaper Lamb, Christopher Moore articles from all over the world, we agreed. Good Omens, and Neil William Gordon, Fractured Lives Gaiman , Carl Hiaasen Barbara Hoagland, bookseller One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or Catch 22 or any Carl Hiaasen book. Dr. Lou Borgenicht, The Baby Owner’s Manual

I’m in. These two are full of horselaughs: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos and Going Bovine by Libba Bray. Phillip Hoose, Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95

—4— www.kingsenglish.com Of course Carl Hiaasen writes funny novels, but my favorite is the obscure Arnold Grossman book Going Together. It’s Betsy’s List about two neurotic people who meet when each is about to commit suicide. They consider all sorts of ways to kill Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons (the movie’s themselves—jumping off the Santa Monica Pier, but the hilarious, but not to the level of the book) water is so filthy; eating giant hamburgers to drive up their cholesterol, and so on. It’s also a charming love story. Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett Sandra Dallas, True Sisters Gospel, Wilton Barnhardt A Far Cry from Kensington, Muriel Spark The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov , Carl Hiaasen This Is Where I Leave You, Jonathan Tropper A Spot of Bother, Mark Haddon Lamb, Christopher Moore Handling Sin and Dingley Falls, Michael Malone Big Trouble, Dave Barry Heartburn, Nora Ephron The Lambs of God, Mary Daily The Uncommon Reader, The Admiral on the Wheel by James Thurber— Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome not a book. A little research tells me it The Bad Samaritan, Robert Barnard first appeared in a 1936 issue Not Wanted on the Voyage, Timothy Findley of . Anything by John Mortimer, Evelyn Waugh or P. G. Dave Hall, Moving Water Wodehouse And coming this fall…The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion (This-Is-Where-I-Leave-You funny, A-Spot- I recently giggled my way of-Bother funny, makes you laugh at 4 a.m. funny). through Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading by Tom- Betsy Burton, bookseller, The King’s English Bookshop: Adventures my Greenwald. With deliber- of an Independent Bookseller ately short chapters (so you can tell your parents you finished your required chapter for the Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins. day), fun cartoons, and a main Jess has an intelligent wit that is character who is an unapolo- both sharp and vulnerable. You getic reluctant reader, Charlie Joe Jackson is great fun read his work and laugh aloud for readers and non-readers alike! even as your heart is breaking. Kim Barnes, In the Kingdom of Men Jennifer Nielsen, The Runaway King

1511 South, 1500 East, Salt Lake City, Utah | 801-484-9100 —5— Literary Laughs

I’d say Catch 22 is a funny book, at least in places. Kent Haruf, Benediction I can think of two funny books: Insane City by Dave Barry (makes fun of Mi- The Spellman Files and sequels ami and all its craziness). This Is Where by Lisa Lutz. Hands down! I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper (makes fun of death). Kate Coombs, Water Sings Blue Isabel Allende, Maya’s Notebook ’s novel, Wonder Boys Alan Cheuse, Paradise, or, Eat Your Jan’s List Face: A Trio of Novellas In Trouble Again: A Journey between the Lamb by Christopher Moore Orinoco and the Amazon by Redmond Straight Man by Richard Russo O’Hanlon Just about anything that Peter Sis, Madlenka’s Music Tim Robbins writes, but loved Lorrie Moore, Birds of America Still Life with Woodpecker. Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Jan Sloan, bookseller Diary of a Part-Time Indian Cat’s Cradle, also Galapagos, both by Kurt Vonnegut. Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby. Dava Sobel, A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos

There’s a lot of funny stuff out there, and when I need a good chuckle I always return to Cormac McCarthy. No, seriously, the dialogue in Cities of the Plain kills me, every time.

Rick Bass, In My Home There Is No More Sorrow

—6— www.kingsenglish.com ‘Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.’ Evelyn Waugh

Tom Sharpe’s novels , Wilt, and Blott on I always go back to the classics. Evelyn Waugh re- the Landscape. ’ Lucky Jim. George Mac- mains a favorite of mine. The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold and Donald Fraser’s Flashman. Frederick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes, The Loved One come to mind. which is pretty dark but also really funny. And Decline and Lisa Goldstein Kieda, bookseller Fall by Evelyn Waugh—one of the funniest books ever written. Tobias Wolff, Our Story Begins: New and Selected Short Stories Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis Nice Work, David Lodge Men at Arms, Evelyn Waugh Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. Classic understated British Christina Schwarz, The Edge of the Earth humor lampooning a rather serious event (the Italian inva- sion of Ethiopia...) it’s simply THE book to read if you ever contemplated, or think about at some time in the future, the “news” business. Alas, it’s no longer quite like that. And I’m only sorry this dispatch is being sent via email instead of hired native runners, racing thru the woods with a paper dispatch stuck into a ‘cleft stick.’ You can’t make this stuff up. David Burnett, 44 Days: Iran and the Remaking of the World

The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom, Silver Pigs by Lyndsey Davis and anything by Evelyn Waugh. Wendy Foster Leigh, bookseller ‘Ancient proverb say, don’t bother’ ... Evelyn Waugh

1511 South, 1500 East, Salt Lake City, Utah | 801-484-9100 —7— The Ransom of Red Chief, O. Henry short story Funny, but I guess maybe not fiction—but who knows? Surely they made some of this stuff up: , Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey— one to re-read from time to time. The humor grows naturally out of family life. The Snake Has All the Lines, Jean Kerr I don’t know if it’s even still in print. When her first grade son came home from school and said he had been cast as Adam in the school play of the Creation, she said, “Honey, that’s great! You have the lead.” He gloomily responded, “Yeah, but the snake has all the lines.” It’s dated to the 1950s, but still funny. And anything by Sarah Vowell

Vivian Evans, bookseller Here is my list of funny fiction, in no particular order: Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Burns Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg Minding Mama by Marilyn Arnold © Copyright Frederick Warne & Co, 2004 & Co, Warne Frederick © Copyright The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window by Jonas Jonasson Anything by P.G. Wodehouse Booksellers’ List The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce Anne Holman, bookseller Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William The scene in A Tale of Two Bad Mice where Tom Thumb and Kuhn Hunca Munca are trying to carve the ham! And anything from The Uncommon Reader and The Clothes The Thurber Carnival but especially, “If Grant Had Been Drink- They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett ing at Appomattox”. A novel that made me laugh from start to finish was The Joyous Season by Patrick Dennis. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Bar- Meagan Gonsalves, bookseller rows Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Or Lamb: The Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore. Simonson

Sarah Ray, bookseller Kathy Ashton, bookseller I haven’t read anything funny that’s new but Over the years I have laughed to the point of breathlessness over Lamb comes to mind and This Is Where many a funny book, any of Christopher Moore’s books (the one I Leave You. Also, I love Me Talk Pretty I laughed at most recently was Fool); several Southern writers One Day and When You Are Engulfed in including Clyde Edgerton (Walking Across Egypt and Redeye) Flames by David Sedaris. Bossypants is Michael Malone (Handling Sin), Wilton Barnhardt (Gospel) and good too, by Tina Fey. last but not least, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s, Good Omens: The Nice and Accu- Marilyn Copeland, honorary bookseller rate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. Handling Sin, Michael Malone—one of the funniest books of all time. Whitney Berger, bookseller How Angel Peterson Got His Name, Gary Paulsen—especially Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging: for anyone who has ever been a boy, or who has known one. The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louis book that will make everyone who reads it wonder how Paulsen Rennison and his friends survived to adulthood. —8— www.kingsenglish.com Local Authors, What’s So Funny?

The book that got me laughing the hardest was The Clumsiest People in Europe, edited by Todd Pruzan. Mrs. Favell Lee Mortimer was a British writer during the Victorian era. She wrote children’s books about other countries and the people in them, and this book Bossypants by Tina Fey almost is a collection of her essays. They are shockingly, made me wet my pants. jaw-droppingly un-politically correct—as was the Victorian way. I was crying with laughter reading her Kristen Chandler, Girls Don’t Fly “objective observations” of people from other coun- tries—especially funny since she only left England twice in her life. She leaves no country unspanked. I laugh out loud at A Tale Dark This book is so painful and so hilarious. and Grimm every time I read it. I’m going to read it again and again. Also, the Pale Green Pants story by Dr. Sarah Deford Williams, Palace Beautiful Seuss. I’ve been reading that thing for 10 Mike Nelson’s Death Rat! years and it still cracks me up! by Michael J. Nelson is Ally Condie, Matched trilogy hands down the funni-

est thing I’ve ever read. It’s Two books that I find funny are The Hitch- tears-pouring-down-your- hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas cheeks, can’t-breathe, hands- Adams and The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett. Or in the spirit of April Fool’s, a too-weak-to-hold-the-book funny. It’s hilarious read is Where the Red Fern Grows crazy-rock-star-holding-a-séance-for-a- by Wilson Rawls, especially the end. fictional-giant-rat-while-the-Danish- Brandon Mull, Chasing the Prophecy mafia-closes-in funny. (Beyonders series) Jessica Day George, Princess of the Silver Woods

Completely silly and hysterical: Dave Barry’s new Insane City. Also loved Truth in Advertising by John Kenney. Terrell Dougan, That Went Well: Adventures in Caring for My Sister

I don’t think this book is in print, but I recommend Jesus Tales by Romulus Linney, a holy, poignant, tender, wildly unexpect- ed, and piercingly humorous re-imagining of the life and work of Jesus. PERFECT for the Easter season! These are tales that will speak deeply to believers and unbelievers. Melanie Rae Thon, One from long ago that I The Voice of the River remember laughing my I normally don’t read humorous fiction, way through was The Snake Has All the but one book (and author) that always Lines and I can’t remember the au- makes me laugh is Walking Across Egypt, by Clyde Edgerton. I also love his first thor—a woman. And anything by Erma book, Raney. Bombeck. Maybe she’s not considered Bobbie Pyron, The Dogs of Winter fiction, but she’s beyond fun to read. Emma Lou Thayne, Place of Knowing

1511 South, 1500 East, Salt Lake City, Utah | 801-484-9100 —9— More Literary Laughs

You know, I found parts of Cormac McCarthy’s very sobering Suttree to be laugh-out-loud funny, especially the part when he’s hunting the bats… John Vaillant, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival The Princess Bride never fails to make me laugh—and cry, and revel in its wisdom and beauty. I read it for the first time when I was maybe 13, before the movie came out, and I have re-read it several times since. William Goldman plays with the conventions of a novel and weaves a fantastical yet brutally real- istic fairy tale that is ultimately about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness— and the pain that naturally goes with it all. And it’s hilarious—even more so than the movie. David Borgenicht, Ultimate Worst-Case Scenario Handbook Although I haven’t read it for years, a book that I found howlingly funny is Dancing Aztecs by Donald Westlake. And I love the humor in anything by Terry Pratchett. I’m eager to see yours. I love funny books. Gail Carson Levine, Dave at Night Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis made me laugh and laugh… Rebecca Stead, Liar & Spy Here’s my choice for a funny novel, Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons or The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle. Nancy Pearl, Book Lust I’m really enjoying Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome! This is one of the bestselling books of all time, has never been out of print since 1880 (or something like that), and I have been trying to convince my students that such writing is worthwhile and fabulous and important even in our world! Bonnie Jo Campbell, Once Upon a River The two books that come instantly to mind are Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, and David Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day. Both nonfiction. Oh, and then there’s A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. Jennifer Jordan, The Last Man on the Mountain Nude Men by Amanda Filipacchi is hilarious. It has a talking cat that had me laughing so hard my stomach hurt. Maximilian Werner, Gravity Hill: A Memoir

—10— www.kingsenglish.com P. G. WODEHOUSE

P.G. Wodehouse. His Bertie Wooster and Jeeves books are laugh-out-loud funny. Sally Larkin, bookseller

I’d say my favourite humorous book is probably P.G. Wodehouse’s The Mating Season—classic and classy fun! Chris Ewan, Safe House

Hmm, fiction, the first thought is Douglas Adams, although I find now, a little Douglas goes a long way. But the one writer who makes me laugh out loud, which is relatively rare when you think about it, is Ian Frazier. His ‘novel’ about the cursing mommy is probably more of an effort to link the disparate hilarious pieces, but o dear god some of those pieces are hilarious. And there are a handful of other Ian Frazier pieces (Lamentations of the Father, for example) that are the funniest things I have read since Twain. So very many of the famous ‘’ in American letters aren’t actually very funny as much as they are arch, or mannered, or stiltingly trying too hard (Benchley, a lot of Thurber) but Perel- man is still funny, and Wodehouse, and Twain in his speeches I always head straight for the P.G. Wodehouse especially. On dark days as an American I try to remember that shelf when I need a laugh. Doesn’t matter we produced Twain, which always cheers me up again. Not to how often I’ve read a given book, Bertie and mention Lincoln and Springsteen and Flannery O’Connor – and Jeeves (and the scary aunts!) always make me speaking of Mary Flannery O’C, she’s often very, very dryly funny chuckle. In fact, I am reading Aunts Aren’t if you are in the mood. Gentlemen as we speak! Brian Doyle, Mink River Ann Cannon, Sophie’s Fish (also bookseller!)

1511 South, 1500 East, Salt Lake City, Utah | 801-484-9100 —11— They Laughed Out Loud

Terry Tempest Williams, Aaron Cance, bookseller When Women Were Birds For me, it was definitely Cannery Row by Rick Bass’s new book on Rwanda, of all . I read it as an undergrad and topics that do not seem humorous, had me was dependent upon public transport at the laughing out loud. It is nonfiction but time. I repeatedly found myself laughing written with the eye of a short story master. out loud while reading it, would real- Even the title is ironic, In My Home There Is ize what I had done, and would look up to No More Sorrow. see half of the bus looking at me like I was from another planet. The reckless exploits of the gang of transients living in the Palace Shannon Hale, Palace of Stone Flophouse (an old boiler, if I remember correctly) are some of the The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett had funniest I’ve ever folded a page over. me laughing out loud. The whole Tif- fany Aching series is a complete delight. Mark Spragg, An Unfinished Life Get ready for the tiny, blue, warrior race of Pict-sies to steal, fight, and drink their way Oddly, in that it’s considered a YA novel— into your heart. which I don’t read much of—I laughed out loud to passages of John Green’s The Alyson Hagy, Boleto Fault in Our Stars. And yes, it is a book about young people struggling with cancer, A great question. And when I look at my list and there’s little more serious than cancer, of recently-read books, I don’t find many but told with such naked candor held up so gut-busters. But, One Good Story, That One, brightly and honestly against the, at times, Thomas King and West of Here, Jonathan hopeless circumstances of the characters’ lives, but no, I don’t Evison. They both made me laugh out think I’m really that morbid, it’s just that all humor is at the ex- loud, more than once. pense of someone, or something, but when it’s bent rightly back into oneself it can be uproarious. Becky Hall, Morris and Buddy: The Story of the First Seeing-Eye Dog So I looked at your request as a children’s librarian and came up with my list. I find humorous stories are often pain cloaked in a laugh but there are a few here that have made me laugh out loud. My favorite is The Watsons go to Birmingham which is one of those books where you are laughing, laughing, laughing and then the punch in the gut makes you double over. This one’s punch comes at the end when the book brings you into the Civil Rights movement of 1962. It’s brilliant. My next choice is goofy funny: Joey Pigza. There are several: Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key is the first one I read. As a teacher of 35 plus years I have known and cherished (!) many kids with ADD. Joey is all of them rolled up into one lovable kid.

Kristen Landon, The Limit Our family listened to the middle-grade book, Help! I’m a Classroom Gambler by Pete Johnson on a recent trip. It had everyone from children to adults laughing out loud all the way from Utah to .