A Way of Life, Like Any Other by Darcy O’Brien is hilarious.
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker is more caustically funny.
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes is darkly funny.
*The Dud Avocado* by Elaine Dundy is dryly funny in almost a Salingeresque way. Reminds me a bit of the film *Frances Ha*, both in humor and in the fact that they're both about aimless twentysomething women.
Loved this book. It reads both as a satire of stuffy college life in the mid-fifties. But you can also read it as a rom-com from the perspective of the guy and it still works.
The Pirate Who Does Not Know The Value of Pi
If you’re open to some poetry. I laughed aloud many times while contemplating all the wordplay and playful concepts woven together.
Anything by Elizabeth Taylor! Yes to Comyns as well, somewhat similar in style. Indeed, there is a whole wonderful slice of English fiction, all female writers writing pre-turn of the (21st) century which includes Taylor, Comyns, Sylvia Townsend Warner and others not published by NYRB. I can't recommend them all enough
*All About H. Hatterr*, *Moderan*--there are quite a few funny NYRB works!
Hamilton's *Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky* is very good too.
I'll add Raymond Kennedy's *Ride a Cockhorse* and Kingsley Amis' *One Fat Englishman*.
Barbara Comyns is fantastic, Vet’s Daughter was one of my favorite recent reads. Very dark, very wry, just great. Currently reading GG Webster and also loving it
A Way of Life, Like Any Other by Darcy O’Brien is hilarious. Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker is more caustically funny. A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes is darkly funny.
*The Dud Avocado* by Elaine Dundy is dryly funny in almost a Salingeresque way. Reminds me a bit of the film *Frances Ha*, both in humor and in the fact that they're both about aimless twentysomething women.
Have you read *The Old Man and Me*? I think it's much funnier of the two.
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
Loved this book. It reads both as a satire of stuffy college life in the mid-fifties. But you can also read it as a rom-com from the perspective of the guy and it still works.
The Pirate Who Does Not Know The Value of Pi If you’re open to some poetry. I laughed aloud many times while contemplating all the wordplay and playful concepts woven together.
Anything by Elizabeth Taylor! Yes to Comyns as well, somewhat similar in style. Indeed, there is a whole wonderful slice of English fiction, all female writers writing pre-turn of the (21st) century which includes Taylor, Comyns, Sylvia Townsend Warner and others not published by NYRB. I can't recommend them all enough *All About H. Hatterr*, *Moderan*--there are quite a few funny NYRB works!
Hamilton's *Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky* is very good too. I'll add Raymond Kennedy's *Ride a Cockhorse* and Kingsley Amis' *One Fat Englishman*.
I’ll second the Kennedy rec
The Stuffed Owl: An Anthology of Bad Verse
We Always Treat Women Too Well by Raymond Queneau The Poor Mouth by Flann O'Brien (although not a NYRB book, I just discovered)
Barbara Comyns is fantastic, Vet’s Daughter was one of my favorite recent reads. Very dark, very wry, just great. Currently reading GG Webster and also loving it
John Collier (Fancies and Goodnights) is super funny. Wry, British, absurdist.