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Disquiet, Please!: More Humor Writing from The New Yorker
The New Yorker is, of course, a bastion of superb essays, influential investigative journalism, and insightful arts criticism. But for eighty years, it’s also been a hoot. In fact, when Harold Ross founded the legendary magazine in 1925, he called it “a comic weekly,” and while it has grown into much more, it has also remained true to its original mission. Now an uproariou...more
Hardcover, 544 pages
Published
November 18th 2008
by Random House
(first published November 8th 2008)
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Some people read the New Yorker for it's commitment to quality journalism, smart reviews and noteworthy literature.
Some people open it, quickly scan it for any and all cartoons, move on to "Shouts and Murmurs" before checking out the movie reviews and calling it day.
Some people are so base as to use the New Yorker as an intellectual guise. Placing it conveniently on the top of their stacks of more smutty magazines (People, US, etc) as they board an airplane.
...more
Some people open it, quickly scan it for any and all cartoons, move on to "Shouts and Murmurs" before checking out the movie reviews and calling it day.
Some people are so base as to use the New Yorker as an intellectual guise. Placing it conveniently on the top of their stacks of more smutty magazines (People, US, etc) as they board an airplane.
...more
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Truthfully, I have read about 3/4 of this book, not the whole thing. Because it's an anthology of essays from the New Yorker magazine, you can kind of skip around.
There are some VERY funny laugh out loud pieces, the two I keep remembering and laughing about at odd times are "The Living Dead" by David Sedaris and a short one called "Ideas for Paintings" by Jack Handey - the "Deep Thoughts" guy from SNL.
Here is one of my favorite ideas fo...more
There are some VERY funny laugh out loud pieces, the two I keep remembering and laughing about at odd times are "The Living Dead" by David Sedaris and a short one called "Ideas for Paintings" by Jack Handey - the "Deep Thoughts" guy from SNL.
Here is one of my favorite ideas fo...more
With most general interest magazines having folded. The New Yorker steadfastly remains the premiere outlet for essays and other short works by this nation's foremost humorists. Indeed, the contents reveal a Who's Who of notables: James Thurber, Woody Allen, Calvin Trillin, Ian Frazier, S. J. Perelman, Garrison Keiller, Steve Martin, Christopher Buckley, Jack Handy, Dorothy Parker, David Sedaris - as well as some authors who have to gain that level of fame. For us, some of the material fell flat ...more
I've been having those middle-of-the-night panic attacks where you wake up sweaty and convinced you're dying of something, and can't go back to sleep. No better distraction than reading a short, hilarious New Yorker essay! I preferred the newer authors, especially Paul Rudnick and Ian Frazier, but it was fun to re-visit Thurber and Parker. I've ordered a copy of the first collection to keep by my bedside. I guess when I finish that, I'll have to replace it with a pint of Popov.
It was...meh. It's writing from The New Yorker, so there wasn't a bad story there but there were some uninteresting ones I skipped. It was way too long, so the story selection should have been tighter and there was not one single "laugh out loud" moment in the entire 755 page book. Not one. There were many stories that were amusing or witty (David Sedaris is always worth reading) but there were too many that were self-consciously clever and precious. Again, there's some good writ...more
I loved the first collection, Fierce Pajamas, in which I discovered humorist S.J. Perelman (whose pieces I obsessed over and photocopied and forced on people in college), and in this collection I discovered the brilliance of Simon Rich, Jack Handey, and Paul Rudnick while enjoying my old favorites Perelman, Woody Allen, George Saunders and David Sedaris. Don’t miss this one, just for laughs.
This is the second anthology of humor writing from The New Yorker, and humor being subjective, this review should certainly be taken with a grain of salt. Some of the pieces were a bit too wacky for my taste and a few others rambled off-topic, but there are some delicious nuggets to be found.
I loved Paul Simms' "Four Short Crushes" and E.B. White's "How to Tell a Major Poet from a Minor Poet," and Peter de Vries' "Intruder in the Dusk" (in which he relay...more
I loved Paul Simms' "Four Short Crushes" and E.B. White's "How to Tell a Major Poet from a Minor Poet," and Peter de Vries' "Intruder in the Dusk" (in which he relay...more
Not as old as the stories in the first collection so somehow they worked so much better for me. I like funny, not weird. First collection is kind of on the weird side, this one has more good stories. Not all, but I just must be picky. If it's silly, I don't get it and I get annoyed. But that's me.
A mixed bag, with highlights from Steve Martin, Woody Allen, James Thurber and a hilarious review of STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH. A few real yawners, though, like the thoughts of a film producer trying to make a movie of ULYSSES told in Joycean stream of consciousness.
OK - I didn't read this from cover to cover but I think I read a good deal of it. Many of the stories were laugh out loud funny. This was great to pick up and open when I only had a few moments to read.
I've just started this, but it is literally a laugh-out-loud compendium of the New Yorker's funniest short pieces. I would buy it for all of you if I could. Definitely get it immediately.
Dorothy Parker. Robert Benchley. James Thurber. E.B.White. Woody Allen. Steve Martin. George Saunders. And too many more to enumerate. An absolute treat.
Jocelyn
added it
He he ha ha. keep on laughing.
Some very funny selections tempered by some very not funny selections.
I love this - it's hilarious, diverse. Great if you just can't keep up with the actually New Yorker.
Didn't read all the stories, but most of them. Very funny. Really enjoyed the story by Garrison Keillor.
I wish I could say that it doesn't come any funnier than this, but it does - elsewhere.
great! you gotta read this you guys...
Hit and miss.
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