Thomas McGuane's The Bushwhacked Piano
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Thomas McGuane's The Bushwhacked Piano
A Confederacy of Dunces and Catch-22 both made me laugh quite a bit. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I find to be a love it or hate it type book.
A few that are purely or primarily comic:
Gary Shteyngart, The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Absurdistan
Jincy Willett, Winner of the National Book Award
William Gaddis, JR and A Frolic of His Own
Thomas Pynchon, Vineland
Many of the funniest things I've read have been in novels with a serious element:
David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
Gaddis, The Recognitions
To counterbalance NiMROD, I love Hitchhiker's Guide and its first sequel (the rest can be safely skipped), but thought Confederacy of Dunces was godawful--the title better describes the Pulitzer committee that voted for it.
"Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh
Yes it literally had me helpless with laughter time and again. I like humorous writing and have read the usual comic authors such as Thurber, Buchwald, Leacock, Wodehouse etc. but, to my mind, Scoop is the funniest book in all English literature. If there were anything funnier, I would probably have hysterics. I should add though that its humour is very, very English and might not appeal to everybody. Definitely not to be read sitting among others on a train.Quote:
Originally Posted by Seasider
"The Good Soldier Shvejk" by Jaroslav Hashek
I found Catch 22 pretty funny. And what I've read of Don Quixote was pretty funny too. Comedy is so personal though.
Try Waugh's other African novel, Black Mischief. To equal or top both of Waugh's novels, try The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary. all of these were published by the Folio Society, and I have them for sale. Send me a personal message.
I haven't read a lot of Tom Sharpe, but his first two Wilt novels were pretty funny. Tom Holt's Norse mythology spoof Expecting Someone Taller is also good.
Wodehouse's stuff is pretty funny and light as well. You can pick up any of his books without having read the others, despite the fact that he employs the same basic cast of characters.
David Foster Wallace and Kurt Vonnegut are pretty funny as well, but its often more deadpan humor. And the overarching subject they are discussing will not be light and fluffy like wodehouse.
Black Mischief is also hilarious but it ends grimly with death and cannibalism and the protagonist back in London at a loose end. The same goes for A Handful of Dust, which brilliantly sends up the silliness of the upper classes but ends in tragedy. Decline and Fall has some extremely funny characters, especially Captain Grimes and the confidence trickster Soloman Philbrick. Anyone who has only read Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, will be very surprised at just how funny he can be after such a serious novel.Quote:
Originally Posted by dfloyd
Decline and Fall is described thus by one critic: " Concocted of cruelty,bigotry, pederasty, white slavery, violence, madness and murder, Decline and Fall is fundamentally playful and side -splittingly funny"
"the gang that couldn't shoot straight" by Jimmy Breslin was a very funny novel. It takes the gangster genre and makes it just plain silly fun.
Can't say I've read that much comedy in my time. Don Quixote though had me frequently laughing aloud. Sancho's gullibillity, Don Quixote's earnestness, and the brilliantly ridiculous action sequences which proceed from both will crack you up big time. Don Quixote imagines an uncouth bar-wench to be a noble lady of impeccable class and breeding.... Sancho believes that he'll be rewarded for his service by being granted title to his own island.
Another classic - Gulliver's Travels - has some parts that are truly hilarious as well. The cleverness of the irony, the fantastical nature of the plot, the setting and the action, as well as the sheer comedy of certain scenes, such as when a six inch tall dagger-wielding Gulliver engages in mortal combat with a pair of pig-sized rats .... oh my... I found it all priceless.
And though I've only read bits and pieces, Boccacio's Decameron was rather potently humorous at times.
Changing Places by David Lodge. About his year as an Exchange Prof in America. I did the same thing but though my year had funny moments it wasn't as funny as his.
Diary of a Nobody - G & W Grossmith: the episode of painting the bath makes me smile just remembering it; you can see it coming a mile off but that just makes it even more ridiculous when the inevitable happens.
Three Men in a Boat - J K Jerome: again, you're just waiting for the daft things to happen.
The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford: wistful and bound to end in tears but the Uncle is so monstrous, he's hilarious.
Someone has already mentioned Tom Sharpe - I'll just say Porterhouse Blue is my favourite and for once the tv version did it more than justice.
Hitchhiker's Guide - heard the original radio version with great delight rather more years ago than I care to remember.....never could understand why some people did not find it funny.....
Jasper fforde - any of them, but start with The Eyre Affair for the Thursday Next series or you'll be flummoxed by the conceit out of which the stories are airily spun.
And no one has mentioned him because he's not Proper Literature, but Terry Pratchett never fails to raise a smile for me: try Weird Sisters - I defy anyone not to guffaw at the opening paragraphs; that Hwil the Playwright could go far...
Oh, and it's not a novel, but Gerald Durrell's My Family and other Animals is wickedly subversive: I have never been able to take Lawrence Durrell seriously after reading it.
I second the David Lodge choice and would add that his Nice Work struck a horribly familiar chord when I read it as I exchanged an academic life for a job in industry.
I know we're not all Twilight fans feverishly speculating about the ending of New Moon or anything, but spoiler alerts are still a good rule of thumb.Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller
I have never read that many funny books, I did find the guide to the galaxy funny and Don Quixote but I also found the simple book Marley and me very funny at times maybe because I saw Spock in Marley a lot.
I don't usually tend to read comedy although I found Bridget Jones' Diary quite funny :biggrin5:
Christopher Moore for ironic and sarcastic humor! Lamb and the Dirtiest Job are some good ones.
Hitchhiker's Guide, also Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
Fear and Loathing in Law Vegas is absolutely the funniest book I've ever read. I read it in college and it brought me out of a bad mood. The Acid House by Irvine Welsh and anything by Jennifer Belle are seconds. Barrel Fever by David Sedaris and American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis too.
Most of these books aren't novels though, which is why I have to crown Jennifer Belle as the funniest novelest, if I had to. Maybe I'm sick but but all of her books are funny, honest, and helped me to regain my composure when I needed to. I get the dark humor; surreal and hilarious at the same time.
Gore Vidal- Myra Breckenridge
Philip Roth- Portnoy's Complaint
William Faulkner- As I Lay Dying
Flannery O'Conner- short stories
Jonathan Swift- A Modest Proposal
Donald Barthleme- The Dead Father (Obviously I have a black sense of humor)
John Kennedy Toole- A Confederacy of Dunces
Comic writers are often underrated. Here are some classics:
Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald
P. G. Wodehouse, The Inimitable Jeeves
Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat
'Billy Liar' by Keith Waterhouse if you enjoy sardonic, British humour. However, be prepared to embarrass yourself if reading in public.
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Ooh I'm glad someone mentioned Lamb by Christopher Moore. That made me laugh a lot.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, i just finished my second read through this year, one of the funniest, in a subtle way, books i've ever read.
This has made me realize I almost never read funny stuff... oh no... I can't think of any novel that really made me laugh. I am sure there has to be something.
Oscar Wilde's plays tend to be funny. I always laugh with Shakespeare... Cymbeline, for example.
Though not a funny book, it definitely made me laugh out loud a few times: Notes from Underground
I may have to pick up a few books all of you have mentioned... I need some comedy in my life.
Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff (Christopher Moore)
Jitterbug Perfume (Tom Robbins)
Skinny Legs and All (Tom Robbins)
Red Dwarf (Grant and Naylor)
Good Omens (Pratchett and Gaiman)
Kraken (China Mieville)
The Education of Hyman Kaplan by Leo Rosten and the sequel The Return of Hyman Kaplan are very funny, especially if you have ever tried to teach English to a group of non- English speakers. Hilarious.
"The Heart of a Dog" and "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov.
"The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols = Rib-aching tears of joy.
Haven't read The Heart of a Dog, but The Master and Margarita is great. Love the cat.Quote:
Originally Posted by Des Essientes
'Catch 22' by Joseph Heller.
'The Liar' by Stephen Fry. Oh, and DO NOT read the wikipaedia entry or a review on this before reading the book. It will just spoil the fun.
I've also found some novels by Kurt Vonnegut rather funny, though the chuckles are bitter.
The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy. Very funny account of an American ingenue's experiences in Paris after WW2.
While technically not a novel, Mark Twain's Practical Jokes With Artemus Ward was by far the funniest book I ever read. So sad it is out of print.
Hi friends
Just finished reading Three men in Boat by Jerome K Jerome
Its Good but you wont be able to enjoy it fully unless you are a Londoner or have taken a ride through Thames as per book.
I think of all the genres in literature , humor is toughest to master.
So who are the authors you think are masters of this art.
And which is the funniest book you have ever read.
Ciao
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh is very funny, as is Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis.
David Lodge's Small World was very funny.
I used to like Spike Milligan's war diaries: Hitler, My Part in his Downfall, and the others. I am not sure I'd find them so funny now.
James Herriot's vet books were hilarious.
George MacDonald Fraser's Private McAuslen books were hilarious also. Some of his Flashman books were pretty funny too.
Larry McMurtry gave some of his characters great lines in the Lonesome Dove series.
I've been on several boat trips on the Thames. I've even swam down a few miles of it. However I did not think Three Men in a Boat was very funny and could not see what the fuss was about. It's quite a pleasant book; it's not very funny.Quote:
Originally Posted by ashthehunk
That's one of my all-time favorites right there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Seasider