The McSweeney’s Joke Book of Book Jokes by the Editors of McSweeney’s
Reviewed by Maggie Hill
12.17.07
Read this book. It’s hilarious.
You don’t need to know a struggling writer, or the history of publishing, or a lot about Kafka to harrumph your way through the reading. Just take a look at some of the titles:
• A Serial Killer Explains the Distinctions Between Literary Terms (Charlie Anders)
• Frank McCourt’s American History Class: Course Syllabus (Derrick Martin)
• Cormac McCarthy Writes to the Editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican (John Kennan)
• Social Security Denies Gregor Samsa’s Disability Claim (Alex St. Andrews)
• Possible Reasons My Short Stories are so Poorly Reviewed by the Other Members of My Writers’ Workshop (Jared Young)
Many times, the idea of a joke is funnier than the actual articulation of the joke. Not true for this collection. The titles alone are killer, but in almost every treatment, the sharply written, crazily imagined, breakneck pace of the pieces satisfy. If you think the idea of an “Unpublished Coda to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird” (Tim Carvell) merits a laugh, then you’ll be gratified by how the brilliantly imagined, seriously entertained idea gathers momentum. Here’s a quick snip:
“Atticus had long maintained that it was a sin to kill any animal whose sole purpose was to provide delight – his favorite example being the mockingbird. The rest, of course, were fair game. In the months since he had retired from the practice of law and taken the job of zookeeper, Atticus was putting that principle into action. He had killed eight pheasants, a giraffe, two chimpanzees, six porcupines, all the reptiles, and more blue jays than you could shake a stick at.”
While there is no discernible organization to the book – each funny piece comes after another without announcement – the general idea is that these writers use authors, characters, literary agents, and the writers’ workshop for their inspiration. Lions of the Literary Canon are fair and funny game, with James Joyce being evoked in three pieces worthy of their titles: “Portrait of the Artist as a Middle-Aged TOEFL Teacher” (Rob Curran) is a dialogue play with Joyce leading a Berlitz-style English class. “Postcards from James Joyce to His Brother Stan” (Martin Bihl) posits Joyce in Italy, where he wise-cracks on various states of his blindness. My favorite is “Feedback from James Joyce’s Submission of Ulysses to his Creative-Writing Workshop” (Teddy Wayne) because…you know. “Show how these characters process memory, language, abstractions, and the urban landscape through stream of consciousness, don’t just tell us.”
For anyone who has been through either a writing program, from an MFA to a neighborhood workshop, the selections gathered in the book should deflate the blowhards and allow some air back into the room at your next class or meeting. Point out a couple of suggestions from “Thirteen Writing Prompts” (Dan Wiencek) to help get the ball rolling:
2. Write a short scene set at a lake, with trees and shit.6. Imagine if your favorite character from nineteenth century fiction had been born without thumbs. Then write a short story about them winning the lottery.
8. A husband and wife are meeting in a restaurant to finalize the terms of their impending divorce. Write the scene from the point of view of a busboy snorting cocaine in the restroom.
Finally, good luck getting the book. It’s not coming out until April 2008; actually, April 1, 2008. That’s not a joke.
I apologize right now to all the great writers in the Joke Book of Book Jokes if I’m taking their brilliant work and making it sound like corned beef hash. You try writing this review with a straight face.