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By Eric Markowsky, on June 28th, 2011  Author: Richard Goodwin
2011, Seedpod Publishing
Filed Under: Literary, Humor, Short-Run.
| C4 Ratings...out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
4 |
| Entertainment..... |
3 |
| Depth..... |
2 |
Here’s a pretty good set up for a short story: Wicker, a down-on-his-luck hitchhiker trying to get to Vegas, scores a ride from Edna, a senile retired school teacher looking for the Pacific Ocean. There’s plenty of comic potential in the contrast of characters, but more than that there’s an opportunity to explore the strange ways that people use one another, taking turns lending direction and meaning to each other’s lives, helping and being helped, exploiting and being exploited.
Scattershot is what happens when you stretch that premise into a rambling novel by adding an irrelevant subplot about Edna’s unhappy son, Andrew, and refusing to see her senility as little more than a punch line. She bumbles along, always certain that she’s doing just what she means to be doing, never doubting, never angry, never afraid, ready to follow Wicker wherever he thinks they should go. The problem is, once he loses his bankroll in Vegas, Wicker is just as aimless as she is.
After that, all the aptly named Scattershot has to offer is the impulsive leading the senile with the sad tagging along. …
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By John Jarzemsky, on May 13th, 2011  Author: Patton Oswalt
2011, Scribner
Filed under: Memoir, Humor
Get it at Powell’s
| C4 Ratings...out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
7 |
| Entertainment..... |
10 |
| Depth..... |
9 |
Anybody familiar with Patton Oswalt’s stand-up comedy career knows the man can spin a good yarn. His act is peppered with seemingly unrehearsed tangents, thoughtful wordplay, and absurdist ramblings that could be cobbled together and written down to form, at the very least, a collection of cracked-out short stories.
Oswalt’s success as a comedian relies on his ability to acutely observe the human condition and his willingness to root around in his own neurotic life, but it’s always a question whether the funnyman’s gift can function within the confines of a page as well as atop the stage in a dimly lit club. Oswalt answers well: the man can write, and his debut book, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland is hopefully the first of many more to come. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on March 17th, 2011 [This hilarious collection of surreal stories is a C4 Great Read.]
 Author: Patrick Somerville
2010, Featherproof Books
Filed under: Literary, Humor, Sci-Fi, Short Stories
Get a copy at Powell’s.
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
8 |
| Entertainment..... |
10 |
| Depth..... |
8 |
I know the pain of reading a book that’s been called “funny” because it offers nothing else, and I know how genuine comedy needs nothing else to captivate. And so I take it very seriously when I say that Patrick Somerville’s story collection, The Universe in Miniature in Miniature, is hilarious.
And while there’s a lot more to this collection, the nature and tone and quality of its humor is what makes it great. Unlike the straining, jesterly comedy of “comic novels” like The Sheriff of Yrnameer, Somerville’s humor doesn’t compromise the writing or the story, but only ever adds to it. …
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By Sean Clark, on February 3rd, 2011 Author: George Saunders
1997, Riverhead
Filed Under: Short Stories, Literary, Humor
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
8 |
| Entertainment..... |
9 |
| Depth..... |
8 |
George Saunders has one of the most recognizable writing styles today: zany, staccato, silly-serious. He is a well-known contemporary author, a regular with The New Yorker and a recipient of the MacArthur genius grant. There are some really great stories in here, emblematic of his work as a writer, and it’s awesomely entertaining to boot.
On the surface, Saunders’s stories seem downright wacky. In this collection you’ll find a 440-lb man picked on by his boss at a raccoon-disposal service, a historical reenactment village stalked by a murderous caretaker, and a post-apocalyptic picaresque novella. It would be easy to confuse the bizarre scenarios with allegory, and indeed, his stories are highly satirical. But rather than attempt to convey a lesson about obesity, corporate responsibility, or civil rights (respectively), etc., as could be easily inferred, the stories poke fun at us (Americans, mostly) through the tone and delivery. …
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By Sean Clark, on January 21st, 2011 Author: Ben H. Winters and Leo Tolstoy
2010, Quirk Classics
Filed Under: Sci-Fi, Humor
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
5 |
| Entertainment..... |
6 |
| Depth..... |
2 |
At least one of the following statements is true: 1) The “literary mash-up” genre had its flash-in-the-pan moment with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and is no longer interesting. 2) Ben H. Winters isn’t very good at writing literary mash-ups. I’m pretty sure the second is true, but I wouldn’t fight very hard if you argued for the first or both. …
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By Sean Clark, on August 17th, 2010 Author: Seth Grahame-Smith
2010, Grand Central Publishing
Filed Under: Historical, Horror, Humor
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
7 |
| Entertainment..... |
8 |
| Depth..... |
4 |
Seth Grahame-Smith is the same guy who wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and it shows. This is a good thing, PPZ was excellent–a great mix of classic literature and zombie mayhem. The transition from “literary mash-up” to fake biography was a wise move–the Quirk books after PPZ have been disappointing. I lamented that Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (review) wasn’t as good because it was too inventive, and not true enough to its source. But basically I figured that Winters just wasn’t as good as Grahame-Smith. I’m currently about halfway through Android Karenina, also by Winters, and while it’s not all that good either, I’m realizing it’s not so much the author’s lack of talent but lack of novelty: a truly good horror/literary mash-up probably will only work once.
This book is not a drastic departure from its predecessor but it manages to feel fresh. ALVH is made of the same essence; I’d call it respectful parody. This novel is written in the manner of a biography, as if Lincoln’s secret journals fell into Grahame-Smith’s lap. It works well. (He said in an author interview he was inspired to write this because he found it curious seeing a bunch of Abe Lincoln bios sitting beside Twilight on a bookstore bestseller shelf.) …
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By Mike Beeman, on May 3rd, 2010 This is our last entry in the Read This Book Now series. Drop what you’re doing right now, and read John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces. Then read the other entries in this series here. Keep your eyes peeled for our next series, starting up this summer.
 I nearly missed out on this book for the same reason I miss out on a lot of books, movies and music: If too many people like something, part of me starts to think it must suck. I don’t know why, but if more than three people, or any one person on television, recommend something I start rolling my eyes. Maybe it’s because I think that if something appeals to everyone it must be so watered-down and vanilla that people with no taste at all can enjoy it. The point is, I’m usually wrong and miss out on cool things. For this reason, I heard about A Confederacy of Dunces long before I read it. A friend demanded I read Confederacy repeatedly, and after finally reading it, I’m ashamed to say how long he badgered me before his recommendation took. So if you haven’t read this book for the same reason, do yourself a favor and get a copy. You won’t be sorry. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on October 26th, 2009  Author: Michael Rubens
2009, Pantheon
Best ebook deal: Barnes & Noble
Filed under: Sci-Fi, Humor
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
3 |
| Entertainment..... |
3 |
| Depth..... |
2 |
| Originality..... |
1 |
Rubens’s biggest credit in his “About the Author” note is as a writer and producer on The Daily Show. So the conceit is clear: this will be a funny TV guy writing a funny sci-fi novel.
There are two ways this can go. The author can use the wide boundaries of the genre as an excuse to take wild risks with the plot and characters, and so short-circuit the usual novelistic learning curve. Or he could be a funny person who thinks that writing a novel is easy, and doesn’t put nearly enough work into it. Unfortunately, Yrnameer is the latter, and Rubens turns in an uninspired, shapeless mishmash.
The premise is derivative to the least—it reads like a compilation of sci-fi’s greatest hits. The plot is barely there. The characters are two-dimensional. And, possibly worst of all, it’s just not that funny. There’s evidence of a humorous mind at work, but there’s a big difference between being funny on TV or in person, and being funny in a novel.
Rubens’s humor is ill-suited for the novel form, and it seems that he is, too. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on October 20th, 2009  Author: Nick Hornby
2009, Riverhead
Best ebook deal: Barnes & Noble
Filed under: Literary, Humor
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
6 |
| Entertainment..... |
8 |
| Depth..... |
6 |
Top Five Nick Hornby Novels
5. How to Be Good
4. High Fidelity
3. Juliet, Naked
2. A Long Way Down
1. About a Boy
OK, that was pretty cheesy. But there’s something about Hornby that invites a certain kind of earnest, jocular cheesiness.
Juliet, Naked will be made into a movie at some point, and I’m guessing it will star Robert Downey Jr. and Kate Winslet, if they can tweak the female lead slightly younger.
As a novel, it’s a fairly straightforward romantic comedy, with a relatively ludicrous premise. But Hornby has a talent for taking relatively ludicrous premises and plumbing their depths until he hits something good. He commits to his characters and his plot points, and, most importantly, he has a preternatural talent for making stories about relationships compelling and fresh. …
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By Sean Clark, on October 9th, 2009  This book has been chosen as a Great Read
Authors: Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
2009, Quirk
Best ebook deal: Sony eBook Store
Filed under Literary, Horror, Humor
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
8 |
| Entertainment..... |
9 |
| Depth..... |
5 |
| Sketchings/Art..... |
8 |
From the discussion guide appended to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:
Some scholars believe that the zombies were a last-minute addition to the novel, requested by the publisher in a shameless attempt to boost sales. Others argue that the hordes of living dead are integral to Jane Austen’s plot and social commentary. What do you think? Can you imagine what this novel might be like without the violent zombie mayhem?
If you’re at all familiar with Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice, you will immediately upon beginning Pride and Prejudice and Zombies notice that this is really that same book just…modified. It’s not a rewrite, just a reworking. What is really astounding about the Zombies edition is how well Grahame-Smith manages to implement the gory horror aspects, and indeed and entirely new setting, atmosphere, and fictional historical context while remaining true to the source material. …
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