Journal Entry #44
July 1, 2009
’Tis the season for beach books. The following titles probably wouldn’t qualify if we apply the standard definition of an entertainment that works for the moment but requires no serious investment by the reader, and is rapidly forgotten.
These are books that, for whatever reason, broke me up. This is by no means a definitive group, but they were the ones that came immediately to mind when I thought about laugh-out-loud humor. They are in no particular order.
1. The Ring Lardner Reader, (Scribner’s, 1963)
Includes selections from You Know Me, Al, and Gullible’s Travels and a generous collection of stories, parodies, and essays. My favorite is “Haircut,” in which the viewpoint character has no idea what’s going on. I eventually adopted the technique for “Nothing Ever Happens in Rock City.”
2. Three-upmanship, Stephen Potter (Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1962)
The essential reference for those who want to stay a step ahead of the crowd. Includes three books: Gamesmanship, “The Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating”; Lifemanship, ”The Art of Getting Away With It Without Being an Absolute Plonk”; and One-upmanship, which describes, among other topics, Universityship, M.D.manship, Businessmanship, Hands-across-the-seamanship, and the techniques of a Lifeman at a house party. The most memorable line: “If you’re not one up, you’re one down.”
3. Lake Wobegon Days, Garrison Keillor, (Viking, 1983)
Keillor struggles through life with the Sanctified Brethren, joins the Boy Scouts, becomes the kid nobody wants on his baseball team, hangs out at the Chatterbox Café, and shops at Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery.
4. Mark Twain: Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays, 1852-1890, (Library of America, 1992)
We always have the kids read Huckleberry Finn, but Mark Twain is at his best when he’s just talking to the reader. (A second volume covers 1891-1910)
5. The Return of Hyman Kaplan, Leo Rosten (Harper, 1959)
Mr. Parkhill tries to make sense at the American Night Preparatory School for Adults, while confronting Mr. Kaplan, a genius at confusing issues; his loyal champion, Mr. Pinsky; Miss Mitnick, the reluctant voice of reason; Mrs. Moskowitz, who reacts to the outrageous with shocked oy’s; Gus Matsoukas, the magnificent Greek; and Carmen Caravello, the Latin Valkyrie.
6. Alarms and Diversions, James Thurber, (Harper, 1957)
Short stories and essays by the laid-back humorist. Thurber’s characters and comedy are timeless. Among his “Ten Rules for a Happy Marriage”: “Don’t keep a blonde in the guest room.”
7. Selected Poetry of Ogden Nash (Little, Brown, 1995)
A doorstop collection of 650 hilarious bits of verse.
8. the lives and times of archy and mehitabel, Don Marquis (Doubleday, 1950)
Everything’s in lower case because Archy is a cockroach and can only write his material by jumping up and down on typewriter keys. Consequently he can’t get into upper case. Among other memorable pieces: Archy explains what happens when he and a butterfly are both trapped in an elevator with a half dozen people. Oh look out for the poor thing, they cry, staying clear of the butterfly while they go after Archy. And then there’s the time they dropped the body of Freddie the Rat off the fire escape with full military honors. Mehitabel is a cat. “I’ll tell you, Archy, if anything happened to one of my kittens and I found out about it, I’d feel just terrible.”
9. More Guys and Dolls, Damon Runyon (Garden City, 1951)
Chesty Charles, Mike the Mugger, and Mindy’s, “where you can wrap your lip around as nice a piece of gefullte fish as you will find anywhere in town.”
10. Candide and Other Writings, Voltaire (Modern Library, 1956)
Voltaire doesn’t usually qualify as a humorist, but nobody excels his ability to ridicule the ridiculous. From the notion, in Candide, that we live in the best of all possible worlds, to the diabolical visitations reported in “Of Punishments,” he provokes laughter and sadness. Makes me simultaneously glad and embarrassed to be human. Voltaire, by the way, will show up in November in Time Travelers Never Die.