April First is nearly upon us, but this is no hoax:  We asked Mike Sacks, author of And Here’s the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers and Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today’s Top Comedy Writers, to supply us with his highly personal list of essential reading from the comic muse.  True to form, he supplied the following collection of fiction, memoir, and impossible-to-classify works, which range from the famous to the obscure, and which take in every mode from pure frivolity to tragicomedy at its darkest.– The Editors

The Sellout

By Paul Beatty

This dazzling comic novel — perhaps the funniest of the past decade — deals with race, class, politics, and an American Dream that’s becoming more and more difficult to discern in this post-Trump era. Sarah Silverman has written that the novel reads like “demented angels wrote it.”

 

 

Fiction Ruined My Family

By Jeanne Darst

Playwright and TV writer Darst comes from a once-distinguished St. Louis family with its grandeur long since faded. Her mother, a former debutante who once graced the cover of Sports Illustrated as a teen equestrian, descends into alcoholism while her father, a journalist and novelist who barely writes, dreams about finishing the Great American Novel. He never does. Perhaps that’s the most American aspect of it all.  Tragic and laugh-out-loud in equal measure.

 

Will Not Attend: Lively Stories of Detachment and Isolation

By Adam Resnick

Resnick, a former staff writer for Late Night with David Letterman, as well as the creator of the cult TV sitcom Get a Life, delves into his isolated, bleak Pennsylvania childhood as one of five sons of a hotheaded insurance salesman and meek mother. One of the most honest memoirs ever written — and hilarious all the same.

 

The Collected Short Fiction of Bruce Jay Friedman

A huge influence on the work and sensibility of Steve Martin and Woody Allen, among many other comic minds, novelist and playwright Friedman’s collection of short fiction predated the “so pathetic it’s sad” humor of The Office and countless other modern-day comedies. Middle-aged loser Harry Towns figures prominently in many of these stories, a “hero” who’s so lost that he snorts coke the day his mother dies and remains far more concerned about his body lice than he does about his young son’s whereabouts in a Las Vegas casino.

 

Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental

By Drew Friedman and Josh Alan Friedman

The sons of Bruce Jay Friedman, Drew (a genius illustrator whose work has appeared everywhere from The New Yorker to Mad magazine) and Josh (a former contributor to Screw magazine and author of the indispensable look at 1970s New York Tales of Times Square) combined to produce this deeply hallucinogenic dive into society’s forgotten characters: elevator men, comic-book store workers, C- and D-level stars of old Hollywood. R. Crumb  — a huge fan — provides a rare blurb.

The Time Machine Did It

By John Swartzwelder

The reclusive Swartzwelder — writer of a record fifty-nine Simpsons episodes — has never given an interview, although he does now have a Twitter account (@JJSwartzwelder). Through his own imprint, Kennydale Books, Swartzwelder has published twelve comic novels, all of which read like a Simpsons episode for print. Start with his first, The Time Machine Did It, published in 2004. Opening: “Frank Burly is my name. Okay, it’s not my name. I lied about that.”

The Stench of Honolulu: A Tropical Adventure 

By Jack Handey

The former SNL writer and creator of “Deep Thoughts,” as well as two collections of short New Yorker fiction, wrote his first novel about a morally questionable narrator and his best friend journeying to Honolulu in search of the greatest treasure known to man: the Golden Monkey. The book reads like an extended “Deep Thoughts“ segment but with a plot arc; each line a perfectly crafted gem propelling this insane story.

Home Land: A Novel

By Sam Lipsyte

Lipsyte, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker and The Paris Review, as well as many other publications, centers his second novel on a character nicknamed Teabag, a former high school stoner who spends his adulthood wondering just when (and where) it all went so horribly wrong. I suppose you could start with his nickname, which unfortunately does not originate from his love of the popular drink.

The Collected Stories of Richard Yates

This collection of the late author’s work compiles twenty-seven of his short stories. While Yates is certainly no humor writer, his work is often humorous in the deepest and most resounding key. A literary magic sleight-of-hand that has rarely been equaled.

 

 

Tenth of December

By George Saunders

Named one of the ten best books of 2013 by The New York Times Book Review, Saunders’s collection of short stories explores such dark subject matter as kidnapping and human trafficking — although perhaps these aren’t even considered “dark” in this post-Trump world — while still managing to remain humorous throughout. As The Times commented, “Tenth of December never succumbs to depression. That’s partly because of Saunders’s relentless humor; detractors may wonder if they made a wrong turn and ended up in the land of the joke after all.” Not a bad place to end up, this “Land of the Joke.”

 

Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor 

By Lynda Barry

Lynda Barry’s Ernie Pooks Comeek was a classic of the alternative-comics world, the deep humanity of its characters perfectly aligned with the author’s razor wit.  Syllabus draws on Barry’s discoveries as a teacher to would-be artists: an effort to spark creativity in those who might feel they lack talent or who might just need a good kick in the creative ass. Through exercises, drawings, doodles, and poems, the book — made to resemble a grade-school notebook — offers guidance for any creator, with especial appeal for those who appreciate Barry’s exuberant style.

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence 

By Amy Sedaris

One of the few humor books to provide solid cooking and entertaining advice, I Like You is an aesthetically pleasing, funny page-turner and the only book I’ve ever read — beyond James Joyce’s Dubliners — with a list of suggested foods to feed to alcoholics. Broiled Frozen Chicken Wings with Applesauce: Try it. It’s delicious.

 

Gone with the Mind 

By Mark Leyner

Leyner, an accomplished writer of both novels and screenplays, has finally written his memoir. But in typical Leyner-esque fashion, it’s all fiction — or mostly. Even beyond that, the book is the transcript of a live reading that Leyner gives of this very book, complete with an exceedingly long introduction by his mother that takes place at a food court within a New Jersey mall, populated only with a few Panda Express employees. A superb and completely unique work from an unconventional author, and, according to Leyner, his last-ever book. He’s off to Hollywood, for good this time.

 

Birds of America: Stories

By Lorrie Moore

The short stories in this collection include Moore’s pieces from publications including The New Yorker and The Paris Review. Moore extracts humor out of (very) serious subjects, particularly in “People Like That Are the Only People Here,” the story for which she won the O. Henry Award. “The Oncologist describes the tumor as ‘fast but wimpy,’ which the Mother sees as Claudia Osk from the fourth grade.” How does one write a story about a malignant tumor in a child and still make it funny? A miracle.

 

How to Win at Feminism: The Definitive Guide to Having It All — and Then Some!

By Beth Newell, Sarah Pappalardo, and Anna Drezen

A satirical advice guide — from the editors of the relatively new women’s online humor magazine, Reductress (if you haven’t read it, please do so now) — How to Win at Feminism plays on the misguided, often demeaning methods in which the media tend to cover women’s “issues.” One piece is titled, “How to Get Catcalled for Your Personality,” another “A Note from Ruth Bader Ginsburg After She’s Had Her Wine.” These pieces are so accurate that if they were reprinted verbatim in most women’s magazines, I’m not so sure they would even raise an eyebrow.

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? A Memoir 

By Roz Chast

New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast’s first graphic memoir describes the anxiety, humor, and sadness surrounding the last few years with her angry mother and complacent (sometimes infuriatingly so) father. The story holds nothing back, exposing the nuances of an unsettled relationship between a grown daughter and her aged parents. Favorite tidbit: Roz’s mother was known to give a “blast of Chast” to strangers and family whenever she was irate or annoyed  — which appeared to be quite often.

SkyMaul: Happy Crap You Can Buy on a Plane

By Kasper Hauser

Written by San Francisco−based sketch comedy group Kasper Hauser, SkyMaul perfectly parodies the much-maligned (and now much-missed) SkyMall in-flight shopping catalog. Items for purchase in this version include Reality-Canceling Headphones and a Facial Aquarium that enables you to “take your aquarium to work on your face.” Late author David Foster Wallace praised the book and wrote that “the D.U.I. Mask really works!” We can only assume he footnoted the hell out of that mask. There’s a SkyMaul II, which is just as spot-on.

 

Frank: The True Story That Inspired the Movie 

By Jon Ronson

British author Jon Ronson pens this deeply engaging true story about Chris Sievey, a musician and comedian who, in the early 1990s, took his musical persona, Frank Sidebottom — famous for wearing a giant paper-mâché head — on tour. Ronson played keyboards for Sidebottom’s Oh Blimey Big Band, and the book explores his unusual experiences on the road, although “unusual” doesn’t quite do it justice.

 

Role Models

By John Waters

To me, Waters is funnier on paper than he is on the big screen. Here, he writes in great detail (and with great respect) about his, yes, “role models,” including former Charles Manson acolyte Leslie Van Houten, as well as an “outsider pornographer” named Bobby Garcia, who specializes in the sub-sub-genre of “Marine porn.” We all have our kinks.

 

I Don’t Care About Your Band: Lessons Learned from Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Felons, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, and Other Guys I’ve Dated 

By Julie Klausner

Comedy writer and current co-star of Hulu’s Difficult People, Klausner writes a funny, insightful, and unbelievably candid memoir of her dating life in New York in her twenties. She delves (deeply) into her mistakes and offers (very) hard-won advice. It’s like reading a personal diary that was never meant to be read by anyone but the author — and perhaps not even her.

What the Dogs Have Taught Me: And Other Amazing Things I’ve Learned

By Merrill Markoe

One of the brilliant minds behind Late Night with David Letterman, Markoe incorporated her love of dogs into the show by creating the long-running “Stupid Pet Tricks,” among other animal-based bits. This book is a collection of humorous essays that contain conversations with dogs, reflections on getting married, and searching for past lives. Letterman recently said about Markoe, “We haven’t had an original idea since she left [the show].” Markoe is the author of numerous books, all wonderfully distinct. You will never confuse her writing style with anyone else’s.

Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence

By Paul Feig

Freaks and Geeks creator and acclaimed comedy writer/director Paul Feig penned this terrific memoir about his embarrassing adolescent years. In one particularly haunting passage, Feig writes about a teacher who mispronounced his last name, thereby causing years of torment from his peers.

 

Night Terrors: Sex, Dating, Puberty, and Other Alarming Things 

By Ashley Cardiff

Cardiff’s in-depth memoir explores her sexual development, along with all of the anxiety and discomfort that came tethered to it. Kicked out of catechism at eight years old, Cardiff writes, “Luckily, if you want to freak Catholics out, the best way to do that is be a child discovering what sex is.” Bonus: a recurring and disturbing dream about Prince.

 

Digging Up Mother: A Love Story 

By Doug Stanhope

A very personal and candid memoir from hugely successful and cult favorite stand-up comedian (and Howard Stern regular) Stanhope about his close (and very odd) relationship to his mother through the years leading up to her ugly death from cancer. Stanhope takes a dark subject and creates both humor and beauty from it. The books opens with Stanhope describing the call he received from one of his mother’s caregivers, who “spoke like a mortician from a 1950s horror movie.” He can’t remember her name, so he calls her Morticia.

 

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash 

By Jean Shepherd

Portions of this book inspired A Christmas Story, the 1981 movie for which humorist, radio personality, and storyteller Jean Shepherd is probably best known. In God We Trust is grittier than the Christmas classic, blending both humor and more adult themes. In some ways, the book is a continuation of A Christmas Story with a now-adult Ralph, the central character and narrator, returning home to visit his childhood friend, Flick, who has remained in their hometown. Flick’s life hasn’t been entirely easy, but he happily informs Ralph that their BB gun from childhood still “comes in handy sometimes.”

The Barnes & Noble Review http://ift.tt/2nF7j3q