Writing ‘funny’, and being successful at making readers laugh out loud, is much harder than writing ‘sad’ or thoughtful, if you ask me. Humor is often very subjective, so to hit the funny bone of so many is a rare gift. Here are three novels that attempt to do just that.
The Unfinished Harauld Hughes by Richard Ayoade
Here’s a great piece of metafiction that comes through with cutting wit, humor, and a sly sense of timing. The premise is dead simple but works like magic. Richard Ayoade is a comedian, filmmaker, and amateur dentist in today’s world. At one of his regular bookstores, the sales staff mentions that he should check out the book of Harauld Hughes and look at the photo of the author. There, he finds his doppelgänger. Hughes is a celebrated writer of stage, screen, and short poems. He passed away after giving up on the set of the film O Bedlam! O Bedlam! And on a personal history note, was written about because he left his actress wife, and took up with a married member of English royalty. So, the new quest of Ayoade is to produce a new documentary about Hughes and this unfinished film, interviewing whoever has survived.
Full of wordplay and humor, I especially loved the one of a restaurant that was run by the stepfather of Hughes that only served kidney, liver, and tripe; and was called The Offal Truth. What’s more telling is how the Hughes is like a blend between playwright Harold Pinter and the poet Ted Hughes, and definitely stronger with the Pinter connection and parallels. Ayoade has a great time creating this Hughes, and bestowing his Ayoade with all the frustrations of trying to make a documentary that just won’t spark and soar. As a result, the novel also becomes a commentary on artistic merit, or the process of creating Art - in this case, a film. And there’s the manner in which Ayoade, our author, has invented lines from the plays of Hughes and written poems in his name. This is a slim book, but there’s so much to enjoy, to smile and laugh about, and there’s the pathos of creativity stifled or misdirected.
The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis
Willis is an established science fiction author, and novels such as To Say Nothing of the Dog, All Clear, and Blackout have made her both a Nebula and Hugo multiple award winner. Without losing touch with her SciFi roots, this latest finds her sending up the very ones who have often revered her and waited impatiently for her next work. Part screwball comedy, part alien abduction adventure, part road trip disaster tale, and also part romantic comedy, The Road to Roswell takes off from a hilarious premise and just gets sillier along the way. Francie heads to Roswell for the wedding of her best friend Serena. It’s Roswell because the man Serena is about to marry is one of those UFO true believers. While Francie is a skeptic, it’s hard to stay rational and skeptical, when you’ve been abducted by an actual alien, all tentacles and with a tumbleweed body.
What follows is the road trip part of the novel, as the alien they dub Indy keeps acquiring new ‘victims’. There’s Wade, a charming con man, Eula Mae, an old lady with an addiction to casinos, Lyle, who believes the plan consists of cattle mutilations and being beamed up to Indy’s mother ship, and Joseph, who owns the RV they’ve car-napped, and loves Westerns. Together, they form an unholy band of Indy supporters, ready to risk life and limb and help Indy on his mission here on Earth. That is until it turns out that some of the personages are not who they claim to be. The plot thickens at this point and several twists and turns are introduced to keep us engaged. Willis is still at the top of her game, and it will be interesting to watch what her next work will be - if still in the fun and diversionary mode of this outing, or in a more mainstream SciFi/time travel mood. Admittedly, this is ‘Willis Lite’.
I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
Anyone who recalls John Dies at The End, the outlandish book and then the film, will know David Wong as the author. This was a pseudonym for Jason Pargin, who now writes under his real name. Here is his latest, a road trip that’s equal parts hilarious as it is terrifying, reflecting on how crazy and loopy the America of today can be. It starts off with LA Lyft driver, Abbott Coburn, pulling up with his Dad’s Navigator, and meeting a woman named Ether, who is sitting on a large black box, similar in size to what roadies use when lugging concert equipment across the country. With numerous conditions that have to do with them being incommunicado, she offers Abbott $200,000 to transport her and the box to Washington D.C. And there’s Malort, a heavyset goon who’s trailing Ether.
You add retired FBI agent, Key, and her conspiracy theories about small amounts of radioactive material that have been stolen from labs over several years; and Hunter, Abbott’s uptight father. All together, the cast of narrators makes for a road saga like no other. Is the box a nuclear device, or is this part of a new terrorist attack? Well, the truth will be even stranger. What we get is an adventure mystery, that’s as much a State of the Nation commentary coming from Pargin, as voiced by his characters. Social media, the anti-woke movement, the sexual politics of today, gender reversal of roles, and trigger happy USA; they all go under the Pargin microscope as this novel unfolds. If anything, there may be a feeling among some readers that a lot of stretching is going on, as we discuss practically everything under the sun, and the progress to DC slows down. Thankfully, there are rewards for savoring each cross-country mile.