Also, David Sedaris’ books are very funny.
I’ve got to look at In the Penal Colony again then.
I’ll second (or third) Catch-22, even if there are deaths in it. It’s worth a read.
Kind of disappointed that Augusten Borroughs hasn’t been mentioned yet. He wrote a very funny novel called Sellevision.
Another one of my favorite authors is Steve Martin, yes, the one of SNL fame. Very talented writer. The Pleasure of My Company was a very clever and funny novella. I got many laughs out of it.
No one has mentioned any Chick Lit! Has your wife read Bridget Jones’s Diary? It doesn’t matter if she saw the movie. The diary format of the book, which the movie couldn’t imitate, is what makes the book so funny. The sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, is possibly even funnier (I mean what could be funnier than doing a Madonna impression in a Wonderbra in a Thai prison?)
Once done with those she can move on to the vast progeny the success of Bridget Jones spawned, but she must start with Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella.
Off to check out everyone else’s suggestions!
(oh and NAF1138, could you make a few more suggestions? Because we obviously have the exact same taste, but I already read everything you said!)
OK, I ordered this book used from Amazon Marketplace for $.01 (plus $3.99 shipping). It’s a terrific quick read and terribly inspirational. I actually started looking at ads for sailboats and saw a sweet 27 foot Catalina for $5000, which is two feet longer than the Sparrow.
That said, I find it strange that you would consider it comedic. It’s written with a wry wit, but other than a chuckle or two, I didn’t find particularly funny, just a fascinating travelogue with great insights about human relationships.
I don’t know if this would be too dated and too English but I have to recommend *The Art of Coarse Acting * by Michael Green. Probably the funniest book I’ve read - the type to make your family hate you as you laugh out loud every five minutes.
His sister? Are you sure about that? I think it was to make himself laugh. When he read The Trial to Max Brod he laughed, and his sister wasn’t present.
And if you think his works are creepy and claustrophobic, read America. He never even went there, and it’s a directly humorous novel about wide-open spaces and whimsy.
Anyway, your suggestion is good, Krokodil.
People always use the term “Kafkaesque” to refer to bureaucratic nightmares, but bureaucracy was just a metaphor for him. Instead, he was obsessed by the overbearing influence of his father, more than anything like bureaucracy, which was for him just something funny, because he had to deal with it in his job.
Anyway, you know, Meltdown, when you ask a message board with thousands of people for a recommendation like this, you’re going to get so many different suggestions that you’ll never know what to start with, because humor is so subjective, and most of the posters don’t know your personality.
So just to add to the difficulty of your decision, I’ll throw in The Pickwick Papers, by Dickens. Dickens was one of the firsts to use types for comedic effect, and in this case, it’s a small group of men who form a kind of positivist club to roam around England and end up meeting and getting embroiled with all kinds of 19th century English types.
And on a more modern note, I’ll second Buckley, only to add No Way to Treat a First Lady. The president’s wife throws a silver spittoon (made by Paul Revere) at him when he comes back from a tryst in the Lincoln bedroom, hitting him in the head, and he dies. She gets put on trial for murder.
ETA: Sorry, Pickwick already mentioned.
I’ll second a recommendation for the original MAS*H novel by Richard Hooker. Also, the first sequel, MAS*H Goes to Maine, was very funny. Almost as good as the original novel. Later sequels, not so much.
Forrest Gump by Winston Groom is a really funny straight up comedy/satire. There is far less of the heartfelt melodrama as in the movie, but a lot more wacky adventures. He does all the things he does in the movie plus; become a chess savant, go to space with a chimp (or orang), pro wrestle and so on.
*One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding
Here Goes Kitten
JC Saves
*
Robert Gover wrote these in the early-to-mid 1960s. They’re told from the alternating POVs of an upright, uptight, upscale and terminally clueless rich white fratboy and an illiterate but smart, canny and sympathetic black hooker with an attitude, and they’re a freakin’ riot {the third one comes off as somewhat dated buit the frst two more than make up for it}.
*Tales Of Beatnik Glory *by Ed Sanders-hysterical! And historical too! A novel written as a series of interconnected stories about the amazing, amusing goings-on of a huge crew of poets, thrillseekers, artists, criminals, radicals, dancers, dopefiends, lovers, fools, and rogues as they bop around New York City and elsewhere, having a blast and making cultural history in the early 1960s.Makes me wish I’d been there, and I ain’t anybody’s nostalgia queen.
And the third…damn, I can’t remember the title! Anyway it’s by Sherman Alexie and it’s all about the creation, rise to fame and ultimate fate of the first major world-famous all-American Indian rock’n’roll band, and the title will probably pop back into my head a second and a half after the edit window slams shut.
‘Spooks’ by Mary Roach was a very funny read. It’s nonfiction though.
Two words.
Martin Chuzzlewit (Dickens). Funniest novel ever written.
“Harry the Rat With Women” by Jules Feiffer.
Too bad about the no fantasy rule or I’d mention “Venus on the Half-Shell” by Kilgore Trout.
Merrill Markoe – any of her essay books or all three of her novels. I particularly liked the latest one, Walking in Circles before Lying Down. About a single girl whose dog suddenly begins to speak to her. Very funny.
Anything by Florence King
Anything by Fannie Flagg – my favorite is her first, rereleased a few years back as Daisy Fay & the Miracle Man. The original title (in case you get it from the library) was Coming Attractions. Semi-autobiographical, I believe, and really, really funny – especially the bit towrds the end when Daisy Fay competes in the Miss Mississippi contest.
Sarah Bird’s first two – I haven’t liked her latest books as well. Alamo House about a graduate school residence hall for women. So funny I don’t know why it was never made into a movie. Also, The Boyfriend School, which was made into a pretty shitty movie starring Steve Guttenburg & Jamie Gertz.
Patrick McManus has a number of books out. I enjoy almost all of them. The only one I didn’t like is the one he did with his sister.
They include:
They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They
A Fine and Pleasant Misery
Never Sniff a Gift Fish
The Grasshopper Trap
Real Ponies Don’t Go Oink!
The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw
The only recommendation is to not let her read them in bed. My wife would end up slapping the bed beside her so hard while laughing that it kept waking me up.
I too am a big fan of Jeeves and Wooster.