Tag Archives: Comedy

Lost Claus by Dan Fiorella

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Synopsis:
A jaded private eye takes on the case of a lifetime when an unusually small client by the name of “Tweedle” walks in the door wearing a red and green outfit claiming his boss is missing.

Review:
Lost Claus is really, really funny. Dan Fiorella gets all the hard boiled lingo just right and it’s hilarious when juxtaposed with some snooty elves, Santa’s hot-to-trot adopted daughter, and the threat of Christmas without the big man himself. It’s a great satire and a fun story, way more than the gimmick you might assume it to be. And it exemplifies everything I love about the e-publishing boom–what kind of home could a comic novella like this one find in the traditional landscape. If only more writers were at the level of Fiorella and others like Christiana Miller, but it’s a fair trade.

Many thanks to Dan Fiorella for the review copy.

Memoirs of a Time Traveler by Doug Molitor

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Synopsis:
An archeologist finds himself dragged on a zany, madcap adventure through time, his tour guide an indomitable Amazon woman from the future.

Review:
Memoirs of a Time Traveler is a totally original story that blew my mind and made me laugh. Tonally, it reminded me of Joe vs. the Volcano, a misunderstood and underrated Tom Hanks movie that I just adore. I really appreciated Doug Molitor‘s expert comic timing and inventive imagination. And just what I needed after deciding that Kate Morton’s highly anticipated new book is just too boring to keep reading.

Bossypants by Tina Fey

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Synopsis:
Tina Fey’s memoir of her rise from nerdy little Philly girl to comedy superstar and member of the showbiz power elite.

Review:
Naturally, I opted for the audiobook version of Bossypants since Tina Fey was doing the reading herself. Yay! Bonus: it included the full version of the Katie Couric/Sarah Palin interview sketch that she and Amy Poehler did for SNL. Unbonus: it does not include the worldbeatingly awesome rap that Amy Poehler did when Sarah Palin actually visited SNL (what Fey labels a “sneaker-upper”). I know Fey didn’t write it or perform in it but it would have put the audiobook into “best audiobook ever” territory if it had.

Fey manages to convey a winsome, underdog demeanor even when she’s describing her own successes, and I ended the book with a true admiration of her tenacity and intelligence. She’s more than just a wit, she’s got ambition, drive, and the ability to make the most of her opportunities.

I will offer one small criticism–surely Tina Fey, comedy genius extraordinaire, can come up with a better way to take down moms who are smug about breastfeeding than the phrase “Teat Nazi”? People have been hurling that invective ever since a group of moms started La Leche League 50 years ago, so (a) it’s not a new joke. And (b), the word Nazi really needs to be reserved for racially motivated genocide. Last I checked, even the most pompous sanctimommy out of Park Slope doesn’t want to kill any body, even if she thinks you’re a crap parent for not hitting your Mothering Magazine-approved checklist of crunch points. You can find a lot more awesome schtick on Trolls with Wooden Spoons.

Foxybaby and The Sugar Mother by Elizabeth Jolley

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With reading time at a premium due to an active 3-year-old and a high needs 4-month-old, I’m not able to dive into all the worthy books that are sent my way for review. So this will be a bit out of form for the Superfast Reader, more of an endorsement than a review, since I was only able to give these books a perusal instead of a read. But they are absolutely worth recommending, for their literary merit and sheer originality.

Foxybaby follows a writer with punk rock sensibilities through her residency at a weight loss camp for adults. The tone is blackly comic, but with a beating heart of real passion and humanity. For as grotesque as some of Jolley’s characters are, she never condescends to them. I was reminded so much of Jane Campion’s movie Sweetie–and that’s a high compliment.

The Sugar Mother is about a middle aged academic who falls in love with a much-younger woman, and then wants her to be a surrogate for him and his wife. I was less taken with this one, finding the scenario a bit distasteful, but the writing was psychologically astute and enjoyable as hell.

A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark

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Synopsis:
Mrs. Hawkins is a strong woman working in publishing in the 1950s who dares to tell a celebrity writer that he is a “pisseur de copie,” with results hilarious and tragic.

Review:
I had so much fun reading A Far Cry From Kensington! Muriel Spark’s prose is lucid, witty, human, and incisive. There’s great humor and great depth, with characters that feel like old friends.

Mrs. Hawkins is so-called because she was a war widow who knew her husband for only a few days. Now, she’s voluminously overweight and seen as “capable.” Her weight and marital status allows her permission to transcend some societal norms, but she goes too far when she insults a wannabe writer with powerful friends. Despite the ramifications of her action, she never apologizes, and I never felt she needed to.

What I loved most about A Far Cry From Kensington was the peek inside England’s publishing industry in the 1950s, and how much it reminded me of how things still work today. In fact, this passage hit a little too close to home, out of my past as a professional reader:

Connie occupied the office next door to mine. She received the manuscripts of new authors, glanced at them, and, if they were fairly literate, sent them out to be reported on by readers who were mainly retired and indigent unmarried people who lived in the country, had a certain amount of education, were glad of the occupation and the extra money, and who were supposed to represent the average reader. Connie enjoyed a prolific correspondence with these readers. Their lengthy reports were generally gloomy, beginning with phrases like, ‘I’m afraid that The Cafe on the Corner is hardly a masterpiece…’ or ‘This novel is not to be recommended. The sordid element in it cannot be redeemed by the seriousness of the subject-matter.’ A synopsis of the story would follow at the undisciplined length of four or five pages. The end of the report would invariably be a paragraph of one sentence, put in for effect, such as: ‘No, and again, no, to your novel, Mr Travers,’ or ‘This author should definitely be rebuffed.’ These scornful missives were, however, enlivened for Connie by an accompanying letter informing her of the weather in Shropshire, the progress of the roses and geraniums, the nephews, the nieces and occasionally an ailing mother. Connie would reply to these pen-friends cheerily and at length, as soon as she had finished sending to the packing department the condemned manuscripts, with a rejection slip, there to be dispatched to their owners. God knows if any masterpieces were actually lost to the public through this means of selection. I wonder how many of the aspiring writers of those days still have in a drawer the leaf-eared typescripts that they sent to sea in a sieve.

I’ve written both those reports and those rejection letters, but am pretty sure that I did not overlook any masterpieces.

Sophomore Undercover by Ben Esch

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Synopsis:
When wannabe journalist Dixie Nguyen stumbles into the story of a lifetime in the boys’ locker room, he risks everything, including his place on the football team, to bring down an albino drug lord–who happens to be another high school student.

Review:
Sophomore Undercover is written in a breezy, comic style that will definitely appeal to readers, especially boys. I wasn’t so into it myself, because I found the plot really frustrating from the get-go. Dixie makes some assumptions that send him down the wrong road, and because it was so obvious to me that they were the wrong ones it made me not enjoy the story. I really don’t enjoy comedy based on misunderstandings, because I just want to shake the people involved and tell them to pay attention. However, if you are not like me and are more forgiving towards fictional people, then you may like this book if you enjoyed I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle.