Dark Comedy Recs

Status
Not open for further replies.

summerb

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
221
Reaction score
24
Hi all! I'm usually lurking in the writing for kids forums, but currently working on a new adult project and could use the help of the smart, brilliant clever folks in the adult novels forums! (Am I laying it on too thick?) I mean, you know, whatever, or not.. (Now I sound like I don't care!) OK, just um, Halp. please.

The novel I'm working on is a dark comedy, modern day, absurd, but no fantasy elements. Dark comedy is a genre I love in film, but not sure what compares in lit. Can anyone rec something fairly recently published that might qualify as the book equivalent of Royal Tenenbaums, Fargo, Little Miss Sunshine, Etc? Not horror!

I've been reading Christopher Moore, which is pretty similar to what I'm looking for, but I was hoping for something more realistic and less fantasy.

Thanks in advance!
 

RightHoJeeves

Banned
Flounced
Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
1,326
Reaction score
155
Location
Perth
I'm a big fan of Then We Came To The End (Josh Ferris), which is sort of like Catch-22 set in an office. However if you really want something Wes Andersony, check out All My Friends Are Superheroes, Born Weird or The Waterproof Bible (all by Andrew Kaufman - not the comedian. Just a Canadian)
 

summerb

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
221
Reaction score
24
Thank you! I adore Catch-22 and I will check out your recommendations. My library doesn't have any of the Andrew Kaufman ones, if I'm going to buy one, which would you say is the best?
 

RightHoJeeves

Banned
Flounced
Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
1,326
Reaction score
155
Location
Perth
Probably All My Friends are Superheroes. It's a novella so you don't have to commit as much, I guess.
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
Almost anything by Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five is considered his masterpiece, justifiably. Other high-points in a long, prolific and very high-level output would be Cat's Cradle, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Mother Night.

Almost anything by Philip K. Dick, notably including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, Confessions of a Crap Artist, Clans of the Alphane Moon, The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike.

Miss Lonelyhearts, by Nathanael West
A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck (maybe not as dark as you are after, but it has its darker moments)
and if you like Catch-22, you might want to catch Something Happened, Heller's second novel.

caw
 
Last edited:

mfoley

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 1, 2010
Messages
63
Reaction score
4
Location
South Mississippi
Website
www.amazon.com
KILL YOUR FRIENDS by John Niven; BAD MONKEYS by Matt Ruff; Thomas Pynchon's work is often classified as dark humor. INHERENT VICE would be a timely read.
 

summerb

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
221
Reaction score
24
Thank you everybody! This is exactly what I was looking for!

I don't remember Dick being that funny, but maybe I hadn't read the right stuff, I think I only read an anthology (which included electric sheep). I remember liking it, but not sure it fits, maybe I should take another look.

Also, obviously Vonnegut is fantastic, but I can't exactly query an agent with him as a comparable. I wish. :D

Thank you everyone, this community is so fantastic!
 

summerb

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
221
Reaction score
24
Almost anything by Kurt Vonnegut.
and if you like Catch-22, you might want to catch Something Happened, Heller's second novel.

caw

You know I probably should since I consider Catch-22 one of my top five. I'm reminded of a quote when an interviewer told he had not written anything else as good as Catch 22 and he responded, "Who has?"

I love that.
 

Bergerac

Reading & Writing
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
228
Reaction score
33
Location
It varies
In my view, nothing tops A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES by John Kennedy Toole (who was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction). It's scathingly funny.

The misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield in THE GINGER MAN can by pretty hysterical too.

CATCH 22? Well, yeah, of course.

Good luck with your project!
 

RightHoJeeves

Banned
Flounced
Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
1,326
Reaction score
155
Location
Perth
Also, Kill Your Boss by Shane Kuhn. That might have another title in America though.
 

Livilla

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 30, 2013
Messages
64
Reaction score
6
I love some of the books recommended above, especially A Confederacy of Dunces and Something Happened. Miss Lonelyhearts is amazing too, even though maybe a LITTLE too dark for my wuss tastes.

The first recommendation that came to my mind is The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams. On another (but still British) note, The Burglar Diaries by Danny King.
 

dondomat

Banned
Joined
Mar 9, 2011
Messages
1,373
Reaction score
225
More from the British school, vintage mainly:

Tom Sharpe
Ben Elton
Kingsley Amis
Martin Amis
Malcolm Bradbury
Spike Milligan
Harry Secombe
 
Last edited:

K. Q. Watson

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 6, 2009
Messages
718
Reaction score
60
Website
twitter.com
John Dies at the End, but it does have quite a bit of horror. But I feel the absurdest comedy balances it out nicely.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.