Try A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. It's funny in a sarcastic, witty sort of way.
Try A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. It's funny in a sarcastic, witty sort of way.
I don't know if I would reccomend this book for it comic nature (although I do agree with you that it had a certain wit to it), but I would still encourage anyone to read it becasue it was fantastically written and inspiring.Originally Posted by Danika_Valin
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
Bored of the Rings is better.
Another really funy author is Tom Holt. "Who's Afraid of Beowulf" and "Flying Dutch" should be considered two of the classics of humorous fiction.
Goergoe MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels are also very funny in an understated way. The interplay with Sherlock Holmes in the last book is one of the funniest scenes in literature, and it satirizes Holmes.
As long as you warn them that that along with it being quite funny in places, it can also be a little sad and depressing I think it would be ok and that it's actually a biography and not a novel. It was recommended to me because of it's humour and I was surprised at the serious nature of the subject matter but I still appreciated the recommendation.
I thought of another brilliant comic novel, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It's an insanely funny book.
Anything by P.G. Wodehouse, who makes fun of the British aristocracy in his madcap comedies of the 20's and 30's. I would especially recommend "Right ho, Jeeves", "Thank You, Jeeves", "The Code of the Woosters", "Laughing Gas", and/or "Uncle Fred in the Springtime."
And then there's Peter Cannon, who wrote hilarious crossover stories in which Wodehouse characters, Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, confront the monsters of H. P. Lovecraft. The book is called "Scream For Jeeves" and believe me, it's a keeper.
The fantasy of Tim Powers, particularly "The Stress of Her Regard" and "The Anubis Gates". He does stuff about time travel and the supernatural, usually set in Victorian England, but always with a comic twist. He's truly strange...in a good way!
As other people have already mentioned, the Flashman novels. They're a hoot!
I find "Bored of the Rings" to be obscene and unfunny. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate a good parody (as you can see by my previous link), but this is jejune IMO and plays on sexual humour. No offense, just not my cup of tea.
I'm still looking at Confederacy of Dunces (which I heard a lot about for the past two years, actually) and Jeeves (which I also heard about before). The other titles don't grab my attention from some reason...
Discworld certainly has a quality, but I'm not sure if it's funny enough for me (after reading the beginning of The Wee Free Men). But I'll sure read further and other books in the series before I make up my mind.
I am amazed that anyone would find "Bored of the Rings" to be obscene. While there are mentions of sexual and/or sexually deviant activities, those items are satirical in themselves, rather than making any effort to pander to prurient interests. And the "sexual humor" in "Bored of the Rings" is a minor item. Most of the humor is parody of "Lord of the Rings". "Bored of the Rings" makes no sense at all to anyone who is not familiar with LOTR.
Alright, maybe "obscene" wasn't the right word, but I stick to everything else I said. And I understand the "sexual stuff" suppose to be satirical/parodic, it just doesn't tickle my funny bone.
I read the original twice at least.
Last edited by Fango; 08-24-2006 at 01:51 PM.
The Ancient Greeks wrote a Satyr play for many of their tragic trilogies. BOTR plays that part with respect to LOTR. Regarded in that light, BOTR is truly great; but, if you don't appreciate an appeal to ancient literature, it is lost on you.
It is possible that some parts of BOTR are obsolete. There are references that would be lost on someone who didn't have some familiarity with the time period in which it was written. For example, Tim Benzedrine is absolutely to anyone who knows of the drug scene in the late 1960's, but I expect that it wouldn't be as meaningful or funny to someone who wasn't familiar with that setting.
Okay, whatever makes you feel better.
I've never read Wee Free Men but wasn't that geared more for younger readers? If you do decide to try Pratchett, start with Mort, the first two read like Pratchett is trying way too hard to sound like Adams, the third one is just simply awful but Mort is good and if it's strictly humour you're looking for, I would suggest you stick with the Discworld books that feature the Wizards, they are always good for a laugh.
I would go with Idril in that if you come to Pratchett from an Adams background, Mort seems like the best place to start. I find it really good, while I think that much of the rest of Pratchett is quite boring, actually. But then again, I didn't like Bored of the Rings, either, so I may just not be calibrated for some types of humour.
Fango: as you have Guybrush as your avatar, you might want to try the Discworld adventure games. (Not quite "fiction", but perhaps "interactive fiction"?) They play pretty similarly to Monkey Island, and at least the first two are really quite funny.
Also, I know you were originally looking for novels, but for "wild humour and creative writing style" you could do worse than peeking into Tom Stoppard's plays. They are good reads, or at least the 60s and 70s plays are that I am mostly familiar with.
This, of course, comes with certain qualifications: if you don't like absurdist humour (say, Monty Python) and absurdist theatre (Beckett, to some extent Pinter), stay away from Stoppard.
I always loved Catch-22 for comedy. . . or alot of oscar wilde and beckett
or At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien
Though always a great idea for a thread, this thread may help your search, too.
J.P. Donleavy's The Ginger Man is funny, and sophisticated in a..... spraying fecal matter kind of way
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