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Literature for the Funny Bone: Comic Novels and Stories
From the tragic to the lighthearted, I like most kinds of literature. I like the great books (especially Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Dickens, Eliot, and Conrad). I like a good action novel (the late-great Vince Flynn, but also Lee Child and Daniel Silva). I really love great historical fiction (Hilary Mantel, Patrick O’Brian, Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle). I love the great epic poems (Homer, Virgil, and Dante), and have forced myself to at least appreciate some modern poets (Auden, Yeats, Stevens, and Billy Collins).
I like old stuff (Don Quixote, the Canterbury Tales, and pretty much anything by Shakespeare). I’ve become a real fan of sci-fi/fantasy (LOTR, of course, but also Gene Wolfe, Robert Heinlein — though Stranger in a Strange Land is a weird book — and Roger Zelazny). OK, I hate romance novels., and I must say that I’ve never embraced the group that Joseph Epstein calls the “boy novelists” (Mailer, Roth, Updike).
But a special category for me is the great comic novel or story. I grew up with O. Henry’s “The Ransom of Red Chief” and Booth Tarkington’s Penrod and Penrod and Sam. All of Twain’s books have some hilarious scenes. As I became an adult, I went through a Kurt Vonnegut phase (though I can’t read his books now). Catch-22, which I recently reread, still stands up pretty well in the “black humor” category. Confederacy of Dunces was funny, but not as funny as I’d been led to believe.
Which brings me to my point: what are the Ricochetti’s favorite comic novels or stories?
I’ll throw out a few of my favorites:
August Carp, Esq, by Himself (actually written by Henry Bashford): It presents itself as the autobiography of one Augustus Carp, the world’s most clueless hypocrite. He pretends to be religious but is only sanctimonious. He’s a man who believes the reader is panting to hear about everything that ever happened to him. Of a nasty little incident in his early life, he writes: “But the fact remains that for several weeks I suffered from indigestion in two main directions.” He’s a misogynist and a hypochondriac. Above all things, he’s hilariously hypocritical. Truly one of the funniest books ever written.
Mapp and Lucia by E. F. Benson: War breaks out when Lucia moves to Tilling, a small town on the south coast of England, whose previous arbiter of all things social is the redoubtable Miss Mapp. Lucia immediately seeks supremacy. War ensues. The war is comparable to academic squabbles, because the fighting is so vicious but so little is at stake. Early in the battle, Miss Mapp sizes up the political landscape: “Miss Mapp, though there was no question about her being the social queen of Tilling, sometimes felt that there were ugly Bolshevistic symptoms in the air . . . .” Good from start to finish.
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome: The story of a boat trip by three friends (and one dog) on the Thames. This is truly a joyous, and very funny, book. This little exerpt makes clear that all fishermen lie, but only the very best make it an art form: “Some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing; but this is a mistake. Mere bald fabrication is useless; the veriest tyro can manage that. It is in the circumstantial touches of probability, the general air of scrupulous—almost of pedantic—veracity, that the experienced angler is seen.” And, in the midst of all the humor, Jerome manages to throw in little moral fables. Here’s one that teaches us much about ambition and enduring to the end:
“I like to watch an old boatman rowing, especially one who has been hired by the hour. There is something so beautifully calm and restful about his method. It is so free from that fretful haste, that vehement striving, that is every day becoming more and more the bane of nineteenth-century life. He is not for straining himself to pass all the other boats. If another boat overtakes him and passes him it does not annoy him—all those that are going his way. This would trouble and irritate some people; the sublime equanimity of the hired boatman under the ordeal affords us a beautiful lesson against ambition and uppishness.”
One of thing I’ve noticed about great comic novels is that I like to reread them often, even when I know the jokes are coming. They’re good for the soul.
So, Ricochetti, tell us about your favorite comic novels and stories.
Published in General
Thank You for Smoking – Christopher Buckley. Why didn’t I think of this before?
Native Tongue – Carl Hiaasen. This was the first book I read by Mr. Hiaasen. He does get a bit repetitive with his plotting and character development, but he’s always outraged funny.
Both great suggestions. Other early Hiaasen like Stormy Weather and Tourist Season are also great reads. Having lived in South Florida I realized he didn’t need to make anything up. Most of the bizarrely funny incidents in his books actually happened.
Humorous science fiction: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (and yes, the title phrase *is* lifted from Three Men and a Boat)
Little Green Men by Christopher Buckley is another fun one.
The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi. It’s been a few years since I’ve read it so I don’t rightly remember if it was especially funny or just very fun and clever. I remember enjoying it a lot, and I do remember that one of the characters literally laughs himself to death, so there is that.
Pratchett. Any Pratchett. I do think that Going Postal and Making Money are two of the best.
Jasper Fforde. If you are a fan of literature, Thursday Next is the heroine for you.
Flasman, without reservation. Never has a cad been so admirable.
I’ve kind of missed out on Wodehouse. I got interested in reading him a few years ago, but there were no copies of his books to be found anywhere in Israel. Eventually, I figured out that the publishers were planning new editions of his works, and evidently the older editions had evidently crumbled to dust in the used book market as well. (Something similar has happened with nearly all of James Jones’ books, except no one is reprinting them.)
I agree and that’s why I prefer his earlier books before he got too repetitive and predictable on that and other points.
I’ve been on a Discworld kick for a while. The names of the characters alone make them worth reading, not to mention the stories themselves are excellent. Moist Von Lipwig, Cohen the Barbarian, Nijel the Destroyer, Windle Poons etc. One of the best things about the series is that you don’t have to read them in any order (outside of the first 2 books). If somebody is interested in the series, I suggest starting with Going Postal and then just pick up the others in paper back from half priced books or on Kindle (I think you can get most of them on Kindle for less than $5 a piece).
I didn’t see H. Rider Haggard’s books listed yet. The Allan Quatermain stories are great.
Seconded!
Saki skewers political correctness before the leftie who invented the term was even born.
“In the view of the National Peace Council,” ran the extract, “there are grave objections to presenting our boys with regiments of fighting men, batteries of guns, and squadrons of ‘Dreadnoughts.’ Boys, the Council admits, naturally love fighting and all the panoply of war . . . but that is no reason for encouraging, and perhaps giving permanent form to, their primitive instincts.
from The Toys of Peace
I’ve added a “funny” bookshelf to the Ricochet Book Club page over at Goodreads.
I believe I’ve captured at least most of what has been mentioned here.
in re: that guy Pratchett.
I think he is the most consistently funny writer in English today. If I had to pick one title that is my all time fave I’d choose Wyrd Sisters (mostly because I have a Shakespeare thing). His genius is in his incredibly insightful send up of contemporary culture – all aspects of which he limns perfectly. And the beautiful thing is that he is never critical of it so much as completely bemused by it, as should we all be.
J Maarten Troost
Getting Stoned with Savages; The Sex Lives of Cannibals; Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation, or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid; Headhunters on My Doorstep: A True Treasure Island Ghost Story.
The Coming of Gowf is priceless – as are the stories told by the Oldest Member. Then, anything by Wodehouse is superb. As is the Rumpole series. Have nearly everything by both authors.
BTW, read somewhere that John Mortimer was extremely liberal, yet that took nothing away from the enjoyment of his works as is the case with so many who don’t let their politics interfere with their writing. The Portia of our court, the Penge Bungalow Murders, Pomeroy’s plonk, SHMBO,… Can reread Rumpole and anything by Wodehouse with the same enjoyment as the first time. And Austin.
On a (very) lighter note, the Stephanie Plum series are absolutely hysterical. Very fast reads of silly, light froth – but the characters are a mix of the improbable, especially Lula, yet all are definately New Jersey.
…the Stephanie Plum series is absolutely hysterical.
Sorry ’bout that. Where’s the edit button???
Forgot about Christopher Buckley (and others, no doubt). His books, Little Green Men, The White House Mess, No Way to Treat a First Lady, etc. are very, very funny. Good reads all.
I don’t think anybody considers David Foster Wallace a comic writer, but there is a lot of humor in his work. The same can be said for Stephen King and Jim Harrison. Harrison can be particularly funny when writing his novellas featuring Brown Dog.
Lots of great suggestions.
How about a bit of Fry and Laurie. Stephen Fry’s The Hippopotamus is one of the few books on high rotation. (Lucky Jim is re-read at least once a year, to give you some idea of my taste.) Hugh Laurie’s The Gun Seller is uneven, but has some wonderful passages.
I also recommend Beautiful Creatures by Clive James (a very cultured and funny man – one almost forgets he’s Australian…).
Christopher Brookmyre also has some funny books.
Thomas Berger’s Little Big Man and The Return of Little Big Man. Thinking about it I’m a huge Flashman fan, too, so maybe there’s just something about the 19th century I find funny.
Also second Flann O’Brien, especially The Third Policeman, which while probably not set in the 19th century does the neat trick of being funny and spooky at the same time.
1. Wodehouse — fantastic.
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide series is terrific.
3. I have read Confederacy of Dunces more than once, and it makes me howl every time.
I really enjoyed This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper.
The Eschaton sequence in Infinite Jest is a minor comic masterpiece.
If unintentionally funny books are in the offing, I’d submit I Will Fear No Evil by Robert Heinlein. I give him credit for really trying to inhabit how women think, but good lord is it a muddled attempt, to put it mildly.
In that case, we need to include the works of William Topaz McGonagall. Now, that is poetry…or something like it.
Another Wodehouse fan here – I’d vote for his novel, Something Fresh (aka Something New in the US, I think) as his funniest. Or anything with Anatole the French chef in it.
These aren’t fiction, and I suspect he and I would never agree on things political, but I adore Bill Bryson’s books. A Walk in the Woods (through-hiking the Appalachian Trail) is the one that left me the most breathless.
I’m on my 2nd Flashman–Making history fun.
Has anyone mentioned Penrod yet? My husband gave it to me a few years ago. A few nights later, I was reading it in bed, and he came running upstairs in alarm, thinking I must be ill. I was laughing so hard that I was gasping for air.