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Original poster

Modern Comedies

9 replies

Plumm · 09/02/2011 17:00

Can anyone recommend a book that would be classed as a modern comedy - something funny and relevant to now? I don't want ditsy chick lit type books (nothing wrong with them, I just don't fancy one).

I'm struggling to think of an author who fits the criteria!

OP posts:
ShirleyKnot · 09/02/2011 19:24

Does it have to be a novelist?

Original poster
Plumm · 09/02/2011 20:39

I guess not - novel's are just my thing, but am open to suggestions.

OP posts:
ShirleyKnot · 09/02/2011 20:45

I laugh a lot at Bill Bryson's stuff.

KurriKurri · 10/02/2011 10:53

I found 'Deaf Sentence' by David Lodge amusing (also quite poignant). Mark Haddon's 'A spot of Bother' is also very funny IMO.

I'm not quite sure if they exactly fit your criterion of relevant to now. Are you wanting something that looks at modern manners and mores?

CaptainNancy · 10/02/2011 12:40

John O'Farrell?
Jasper Fforde
Magnus Mills

I agree re Bill Bryson though... makes me LOL

Original poster
Plumm · 10/02/2011 23:15

A Spot of Bother is fantastic - just the kind of thing I'm after.

Jasper Fforde is another favourite of mine - i'm after hat kind of humour but not in a fantasy/alternate world setting.

I'll check out the other recommendations - thank you.

OP posts:
KurriKurri · 11/02/2011 13:55

You might also like Malcolm Bradbury,(History Man, Eating people is Wrong) and Michael Frayn (Towards the End of The Morning, Headlong)

It's a while since I read Bradbury - and I suspect he might be a bit dated now - he's roughly in the vein of Kinsley Amis.

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 15/02/2011 15:35

I am a comic fiction fan too and I really struggle in this area with contemporary writers. Everything seems very dark and drear these days. Overall I stick with Nancy Mitford, Anita Loos, Damon Runyan and the 30s!

Some other suggestions:

Janet Evanovich - comic thrillers
Sue Townsend - natch
Kathy Lette (not my cuppa tea but I like her as a person)
Nick Hornby (nb: I don't find him that funny)
Kate Atkinson (in a dark way)
Mark Gatiss - Lucifer Box series.

NicknameTaken · 15/02/2011 16:09

Seconding Sue Townsend and Nick Hornby, but I don't like Kathy Lette. Tondelayo, I like mid-20th century too, especially E F Benson and E M Delafield.

Other modern writers:

Terry Pratchett is funny, but you've said you don't like fantasy.

Hmm.

Notes to my Mother-in-Law by Phyllida Law is hilarious.

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