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  1. 10-14-2011 02:02 PM #1
    Frobby
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    Funniest novel you have ever read?

    I started to make the thread title "funniest book you have ever read?" but decided to limit this to novels only, for now. Here are some of my favorites, and they include some books that didn't go 100% for humor but contain parts that are hysterical:

    The World According to Garp, by John Irving
    The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe
    Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
    The Great American Novel, by Phillip Roth
    Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
    Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

    In each of these cases, I have read multiple books by each author, and they are are very gifted at humor and satire when they bend that way.
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  2. 10-14-2011 02:41 PM #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frobby View Post
    I started to make the thread title "funniest book you have ever read?" but decided to limit this to novels only, for now. Here are some of my favorites, and they include some books that didn't go 100% for humor but contain parts that are hysterical:

    The World According to Garp, by John Irving
    The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe
    Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
    The Great American Novel, by Phillip Roth
    Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
    Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

    In each of these cases, I have read multiple books by each author, and they are are very gifted at humor and satire when they bend that way.
    My screenname is my vote (Russo is legitimately funny, too. As is Martin Amis.)
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  3. 10-14-2011 07:09 PM #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frobby View Post
    I started to make the thread title "funniest book you have ever read?" but decided to limit this to novels only, for now. Here are some of my favorites, and they include some books that didn't go 100% for humor but contain parts that are hysterical:

    The World According to Garp, by John Irving
    The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe
    Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
    The Great American Novel, by Phillip Roth
    Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
    Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

    In each of these cases, I have read multiple books by each author, and they are are very gifted at humor and satire when they bend that way.
    The only one of those I've read through is Hitchhiker's Guide, and that's one of the funniest I've read. I've tried twice but haven't been able to make it through The Great American novel, though.
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  4. 10-14-2011 07:34 PM #4
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    I'm still a fan of Catch 22.
    Last edited by Skeletor; 10-15-2011 at 01:14 PM.
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  5. 10-15-2011 08:44 PM #5
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    John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces.
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  6. 10-15-2011 10:17 PM #6
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    The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury
    Angels by Denis Johnson
    Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson (more of a story collection, but still hilarious)
    Pastoralia by George Saunders (also stories)
    Norwood by Charles Portis

    Faulkner can be really funny too. His story, "Two Soldiers," cracks me up. I wasn't big on the novel as a whole, but there's an absolutely hilarious set piece in Roth's The Human Stain where a vietnam veteran support group goes to a chinese restaurant.
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  7. 10-16-2011 02:33 AM #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skeletor View Post
    I'm still a fan of Catch 22.
    Ha, I'm writing my senior project on Catch 22. More specifically, I'm grappling with Heller and his absurdist technique through the lens of New Historicism.

    As for the funniest novel I've ever read...hmm....I'd have to say Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson. Very dark, but hilarious.
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  8. 10-19-2011 11:37 AM #8
    Frobby
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    Quote Originally Posted by Capn Vivi View Post
    John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces.
    Quote Originally Posted by Skeletor View Post
    I'm still a fan of Catch 22.
    I've read both, and those are both very good suggestions. I will have to go read some of the books on Scrat1's list, none of which I've read.
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  9. 10-19-2011 12:37 PM #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scrat1 View Post
    The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury
    Angels by Denis Johnson
    Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson (more of a story collection, but still hilarious)
    Pastoralia by George Saunders (also stories)
    Norwood by Charles Portis

    Faulkner can be really funny too. His story, "Two Soldiers," cracks me up. I wasn't big on the novel as a whole, but there's an absolutely hilarious set piece in Roth's The Human Stain where a vietnam veteran support group goes to a chinese restaurant.
    Quote Originally Posted by Frobby View Post
    I've read both, and those are both very good suggestions. I will have to go read some of the books on Scrat1's list, none of which I've read.
    Denis Johnson is in among the handful of most talented living fiction writers - though his output is admittedly inconsistent. Jesus Son is pretty much a seminal work of American short fiction - just brilliant, and I've rarely met a working American fiction writer who didn't kind of bow down before it. It's definitely funny - blackly, despondently, oddly, naively, stupidly funny. A fascinating guy - I've had the opportunity to socialize with him on a couple of occasions - he's lived an out-sized life befitting a man of his out-sized talents.
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  10. 10-19-2011 01:41 PM #10
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    There's also Nick Hornby. About a Boy and High Fidelity are both really funny (and Fever Pitch, too, but it's nonfiction).
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  11. 10-19-2011 03:05 PM #11
    Frobby
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nigel Tufnel View Post
    There's also Nick Hornby. About a Boy and High Fidelity are both really funny (and Fever Pitch, too, but it's nonfiction).
    I asked my brother what he thought, and (in addition to several books already mentioned, including Lucky Jim), he mentioned anything by Nick Hornby, Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiassen, and also Dan Jenkins' Semi-Tough. All good choices. Semi-Tough would be hard to beat for funniest sports novel, though I already named The Great American Novel as a nominee.
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  12. 10-19-2011 08:49 PM #12
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    No Barry Hannah mentions yet? I'd include him. Also, some David Foster Wallace was pretty funny.
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  13. 10-19-2011 08:52 PM #13
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    The Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth. Then again I like pretty much everything Cryil wrote.
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  14. 10-25-2011 11:53 PM #14
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    Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
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  15. 10-26-2011 07:11 PM #15
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    Old Man's War by John Scalzi
    Monster by A. Lee Martinez
    Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore
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