Funnıest Ever Novels?
- Thread starter phildwyer
- Start date
brahaminda
...of the Mind
God Knows by Heller
Douglas Adams (Again)
Neal Stephenson Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle are fucking hilarious, in parts.
Once you've got past all the maths and cryptology and economics and cryptology and economics and maths etc.....
Douglas Adams (Again)
Neal Stephenson Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle are fucking hilarious, in parts.
Once you've got past all the maths and cryptology and economics and cryptology and economics and maths etc.....
unusual_solid said:
Oh God yes. Mostly, as Orang Utan says, a bıt mordant, but not ın Notes From Underground. The sequence ın whıch the underground man ınvıtes hımself to a prıvate school reunıon, spends the whole tıme pacıng up and down ın a fury, ınsults all the guests, then begs to borrow money from one of them, uses ıt to go vısıt a brothel, where he trıes to rescue one of the hookers... or the bıt where an offıcer accıdently bumps ınto hım ın the park and he spends months searchıng for hım so he can bump hım back... pure comıc genıus.
goldenecitrone
post tenebras lux
Woody Allen's short stories are well funny. Also, Lucky Jim and Money by the Amis boys. Most Tom Sharpe. and Catch 22.
also, pretty much anything by robert rankin. All his books have the general format of "local loser discovers absurd conspiracy/ plan to rule entire world, bumbles around complaining about it for most of the novel and then brings the apparatus of evil crashing down, more or less by accident", but he's still a genius.
k_s said:
Oh yes. Hıs earnest consternatıon when Stavrogın bıtes the governer's ear ıs hılarıous. The whole humor of that novel comes from the juxtaposıtıon of the nutter revolutıonarıes wıth the ordınary people of 'Cattletown' (Dosteovsky mentıons the town's name just once, ın an asıde). I don't read Russıan, but I'm told a lot of the humor gets lost ın translatıon, though the most recent one ısn't bad: I love the renderıng of the chapter tıtle 'Peter Stepanovıch Gets Busy.'
dynamicbaddog
run for your life
moonsi til said:
excellent choice
Reg Perrin
In the Toon
Vixen said:
i was going to mention "Something happened" but while I'm at it "setting free the bears" and "The World according to Garp" and Irvings early novels were funniest for me.
goldenecitrone
post tenebras lux
onemonkey said:
You should read the Koran. Your sides would split.
Col_Buendia
sort code
PieEye said:
(Are you doing this to prove to Nino that you've read Notes??)
I'm reading something now called Ripley Bogle about a ranty tramp and it's very funny. Articulate spitting invective always gets me going.
Another one for Confederacy of Dunces here too.
Ripley Bogle's a cracker! That's cos the author's from Norn Iron, innit
What about Vernon God Little, seeing as Phil kicked off with the DBC Pierre ref? I haven't seen the 2nd one yet, but VGL had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion...
brahaminda
...of the Mind
Gates of Eden, short story collection (I know, I know) by Ethan Coen
onemonkey
winmonkey
I find it funny in the same way that someone nominated American Psycho.Fez909 said:Some strange choices here: Thus Spake Zarathustra?
reading both of them you cannot help thinking they are both clever Chris Morris creations..
although to be fair to Freddy, TSZ is also beautifully written and occasionally brilliant..
whereas i tend to feel that most of the best humour in AP wasn't intentional on B.E.E.'s part.
Cloo
Banana for scale
Nigel Williams' 'Wimbledon' books ('The Wimbledon Poisoner', 'They Came from SW19' and 'East of Wimbledon') were some of the funniest I've read. One family holiday we were all lying around and between us reading all three of them and there was the laregest amount of guffaw-age I've ever heard produced by one author!
jonnyd1978
Handsome lads are playing chess in your area
I've had very, very few books that have actually made me laugh out loud whilst reading them. I'm hard to tickle!
One I can remember though has gone down in my memory as one of my favourites probably because it made me laugh. It was an Amis. I think it was Martin. London Fields. Loved it!
Another author who has always got me laughing is Sue Townsend with the Adrian Mole diaries. Just perfect in every way!
BTW, on the stength of this thread I'm going to read the copy of catch22 I bought at a car boot sale 5 years ago but have never got round to reading! I hope it's worth it!
One I can remember though has gone down in my memory as one of my favourites probably because it made me laugh. It was an Amis. I think it was Martin. London Fields. Loved it!
Another author who has always got me laughing is Sue Townsend with the Adrian Mole diaries. Just perfect in every way!
BTW, on the stength of this thread I'm going to read the copy of catch22 I bought at a car boot sale 5 years ago but have never got round to reading! I hope it's worth it!
Fez909
toilet expert
You won't be dissapointed.
It took me three foiled, half-hearted attempts to get into it (I read about a couple of pages each time, didn't have a clue what was going on, gave up until 'the right mood' came along).
I had no idea it was meant to be comedy/satire/absurdity. Just assumed it was a serious war book. Finished it within a couple of days, and it's a hefty book!
It took me three foiled, half-hearted attempts to get into it (I read about a couple of pages each time, didn't have a clue what was going on, gave up until 'the right mood' came along).
I had no idea it was meant to be comedy/satire/absurdity. Just assumed it was a serious war book. Finished it within a couple of days, and it's a hefty book!
bubba_jones
Well-Known Member
Funny books ... hmmm.
'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' is pretty funny. A few laugh out loud moments in that. As others have said 'Catch 22', and a number of Vonnegut ones 'Slaughterhouse 5' and 'Hyperreal" (?) are ones I can remember. I'd also second 'American Psycho', especially the chapter where he goes on a crack fuelled ramage of conspicuous consumption - buying 5 copies of Bruce Willis's latest CD ... 'The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzmen' by the bloke who wrote Captain Corelli. 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' has a number of funny moments in the first half of the book, but the tone gets increasingly darker as the novel progresses.
'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' is pretty funny. A few laugh out loud moments in that. As others have said 'Catch 22', and a number of Vonnegut ones 'Slaughterhouse 5' and 'Hyperreal" (?) are ones I can remember. I'd also second 'American Psycho', especially the chapter where he goes on a crack fuelled ramage of conspicuous consumption - buying 5 copies of Bruce Willis's latest CD ... 'The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzmen' by the bloke who wrote Captain Corelli. 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' has a number of funny moments in the first half of the book, but the tone gets increasingly darker as the novel progresses.
purves grundy
ambient clown remix
Lucky JimReg in slippers said:
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