Hi Suroor, I too am a fan of the maximalist, intergenerational, darkly comedic magical realist doorstopper, and while I have nothing but love for Midnight’s Children and One Hundred Years of Solitude, Günter Grass’ raucous, nightmarish, absurdist masterpiece The Tin Drum might just have ‘em both beat. It’s a tale recounted from inside an insane asylum (because of course) by Oskar Matzerath, a wildly unreliable narrator who decided as a child in the Free City of Danzig that he would grow no more and, true to his word, retained his diminutive stature throughout the baroque horrors of World War II and beyond. For something a little warmer, a little cozier, but still bursting at the seams with memorable characters and crackling comic brio, why not try James McBride’s Deacon King Kong? Set in a Brooklyn housing project in 1969 and centered around a “walking genius, a human disaster, a sod, a medical miracle” by the name of Deacon Cuffy Lambkin aka “Sportcoat,” it’s a manic, cacophonous, bighearted love letter of a novel. And from the realm of surprisingly funny historical nonfiction, might I suggest Evan S. Connell’s wry, novelistic account of the insufferable General Custer and his ignominious end at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Son of the Morning Star? These novels represent three very different modes of humor, but each one is an utterly engrossing reading experience. –Dan Sheehan, Book Marks Editor in Chief |
