Humor - WKTV Journal

By Grand Rapids Public Library

Need a lift? Try a bit of Dave Barry’s humor in his newest book.

Born in 1947, in the vanguard of the “Boomer” generation, Barry’s journalistic work has long provided a humorous slant to that demographic lump in the American loaf. As he’s gotten older, it’s worthwhile reading to see what Barry makes of how the overly self-absorbed generation has come to terms with its time on the field.

The chapter that resonated with me the most was the one where he is looking back on three generations, with a fourth one just coming onstage, and decides that his parents had more fun than he did.

“That’s not how it was supposed to be. My parents belonged to the Greatest Generation; they grew up in hard times. My mom was born in Colorado in an actual sod hut, which is the kind of structure you see in old black-and-white photographs featuring poor, gaunt, prairie-dwelling people standing in front of what is either a small house or a large cow pie…”

Dave speculates that the Greatest Generation may have triumphed by not realizing all the mistakes they were making — mistakes that the Boomers rectified by turning “parenting” into a verb, among other things. The laughter has a poignant bite to it, as Barry admits that “The harsh truth is that happiness is an elusive thing.”

But that does not slow the author down, as he travels to Brazil with his daughter for the World Cup, and goes to Russia with Ridley Pearson for a literature tour (the State Department tapped them to go). He meets David Beckham, tries Google Glass, and reveals a stunning secret confided to him by Johnny Carson about do-it-yourself home improvements. Great stuff!

Going back to a Dave Barry book was like meeting an old friend for lunch — you realize how much you’ve missed them and wondered where the time went.

On the Shelf Book Review

By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

When David Sedaris, the famous humorist, was in Grand Rapids last spring, the Grand Rapids Press reviewer summed up his type of comedy as “NPR funny”— an excellent term, which perfectly describes an addictive style that touches on the poignant absurdity of life.

Along the lines of Woody Allen and James Thurber, with a bit of Jack Benny and Phillip Roth thrown in, Sedaris takes the melancholy and self-absorbed male to new heights. He’s honed an intense, but not mean-spirited voice over the years, and it is quite unique.

With a self-depreciating eye, he looks over topics like his childhood, family life, a checkered career path, being obsessive, being gay, travel, and his long-term relationship with his partner, Hugh, among others. If the topics seem a little mundane, it’s really about what he does with them.

If you haven’t discovered Sedaris yet, try a couple of his more recent works. One of my favorites is Dress Your Family in Denim and Corduroy, which has the small chapter, The End of the Affair, where David and Hugh take in a movie. It becomes clear to Sedaris that watching romantic movies is just plain dangerous, for reasons that may not have ever occurred to you. These four pages alone are worth the price of the book, and of course his works are available in print or audio at the library for free.