“God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.” —Voltaire
These are troubling times and, though our physical bookstore is closed, we want to continue offering our community a respite from the stress. What better than laughter to provide that relief? From 20th century classics to contemporary favorites, escape into these absorbing comic novels.
Available to purchase through our online bookstore.
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A Confederacy of Dunces
By John Kennedy Toole
Published by Grove/Atlantic
This sidesplitting masterpiece stars Ignatius J. Reilly, an instantly iconic character: a hugely overweight, mother-abusing, underemployed lazy slob who captured the hearts of readers everywhere, and won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1981.
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The Sellout
By Paul Beatty
Published by Picador
A stinging comic satire, Beatty brilliantly scores with his multiple award-winning, ingenious novel that culminates in a race trial at the Supreme Court and a bid to bring back slavery.
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Scoop
By Evelyn Waugh
Published by Back Bay Books
No one does dry mordant wit better than Waugh in his dark comedies and this skewering of the business of journalism is both timely and timeless, and laugh-out loud funny.
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The Master & Margarita
By Mikhail Bulgakov
Published by Harry N. Abrams
A masterwork of 20th century literature, set both in Moscow and ancient Jerusalem, and featuring the Devil and the Witch Queen. Not published until the 60s, it remains a must-read as a brilliant satire of Soviet life under Stalin.
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My Sister the Serial Killer
By Oyinkan Braithwaite
Published by Anchor
Two sisters, the unstable sociopath with a penchant for murdering her boyfriends, and the protective sister who cleans up her messes are inextricably entwined in Braithwaite’s delicious literary satire.
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Less
By Andrew Sean Greer
Published by Little, Brown and Company
A great topic for a navel-gazing literary parody: the ubiquitous literary boondoggle, here following a hapless, failed novelist in a full-blown mid-life crisis from France to Berlin to Morocco to India. Hilarious entertainment with a big heart.
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Four More to Consider...
By Various Authors
- The Portable Dorothy Parker
Edited by Marion Meade; Illustrated by Seth - In Persuasion Nation
George Saunders - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams - Cocktail Time
P.G. Wodehouse
- The Portable Dorothy Parker
