A Lesson in Woo-Woo and Murder

 By David Unger, PHD

KDP     2023

232 pages     Mystery/Humor

A Lesson in Woo-Woo and Murder is the ninth “lesson” book by psychologist, David Unger. Surprisingly, the main protagonist of the book is a psychologist named David Unger. I had read several pages before I said to myself, “Wait, Who is telling this woo-woo story?” I had to start the book all over again. Apparently the main protagonist in all of David Unger’s books is aah…David Unger.

Because this is a tricky book to review, I will refer to the publisher’s synopsis to get started on this review:

“David’s chakras are stimulated and he takes a skeptical step into the unknown when he’s asked for support at the Santa Monica Whole Life Expo – bad juju is coming, and positive therapeutic auras are required. Murder soon spoils the cosmic karma, and with the posse on hand to spice up the mystic mix, David’s sleuthing leads him to places he’s never been before, and most likely won’t return to.
But David is distracted – Nova, the Love Doctor, puts the “oo” in his personal woo-woo, and when a psychic foretells of romance in his future, he all but enters a different dimension. David’s special brand of voodoo-therapy-magic has never been more at home, but can he overcome his super Nova distraction for long enough to unmask the killer before anyone else gets hurt?”

Not having read any of the ‘Lesson’ books by David Unger, I had no idea what I was getting into. First, the book takes place in 1985 when a “Whole Life Expo” was a “New Age, spiritual, natural health, conscious living, metaphysical, extraterrestrial, enlightening hodgepodge of vendors, speakers, and snake-oil purveyors.” David, the hero of the story, has never been to a Whole Life Expo, nor have I. After reading the book, I’m not sure I would have gone, because there is a lot of woo-woo going on at the Expo and a lot of very weird characters. Very shortly, three of the vendors are killed, and David’s curiosity gets the best of him.

David has already solved at least eight murders in previous books  with a certain amount of his karma, and the karma is very evident in the woo-woo murders as he stumbles along, trying to solve these new murders that he has indeed stumbled into. He can’t help himself, as he pursues Nova, the love doctor, at the same time he is trying to solve the mystery.

The chapters are really short and contain a lot of cringe-worthy humor. Frankly, it was the short chapters and the humor that kept me reading. The plot, in itself, is not really enough. Several times I caught myself reading and thought, “Why am I doing this?” Although not very enlightening, A Lesson in Woo-Woo and Murder is a lot of fun. It would be a perfect airplane read or a good audio book for a long ride. Fun without taking up too much intellect or concentration other than remembering the names of a lot of strange characters.

As I read, I kept thinking that David Unger must be having a really good time writing these novels, solving these crazy crimes, all the while thinking up silly jokes to include in the chapters. He has another book coming out soon, A Lesson in Dogs and Murder.

A Lesson in Woo-Woo and Murder is coming out in two weeks. Look for it. You will have a lot of fun.

David Unger PHD’s website.  On his website is an audio recording recalling how he got into the humor/mystery writing business in the first place.

Kissing the World Goodbye

 By Jennifer Clark

Unsolicited Press     2022

186 pages     Memoir

I must say two things at the outset of this look at Kissing the World Goodbye. First, Jennifer is my friend. Together, we created and edited an anthology called Immigration and Justice for Our Neighbor several years ago as a fund raiser for the Justice for Our Neighbor organization at our church. Then, I had no idea what I was getting into when I began reading her newest book. I knew that she was a thoughtful poet and a good cook, but I had no idea how funny, ironic, and sarcastic she could be when writing memoirs and essays. I have read her poetry, but this memoir is a scene all of its own! 

The  book is dedicated to Jennifer’s brother and sister, although they bear some of the brunt of Jennifer’s sarcasm, particularly her sister. Ironically, she notes that her sister didn’t want her real name in the book—no surprise there—so she is called Holly. There is some nostalgia present as Jennifer discusses her father’s career as a biologist and professor, and she mentions things that she learned from him, particularly about insects—his specialty. The essays also include thoughts about his dying and the family’s response to his illness and death.

Some of the essays are ridiculous but immersive at the same time. For example, I never even thought about Ernest Borgnine’s eyebrows, but after reading the essay about him, now I care. I had to Google him to see if he were still alive (died 2012) and to check to see if I remembered his eyebrows. Another essay concerns Jennifer’s first trip to Costco with her sister. The final sentence in the chapter: “Before today, I never knew I needed them.” That sums up Costco in a few words.

Nostalgic memories chased me when I was reading the essay about margarine. There was a time when margarine couldn’t be sold in midwestern states, like Wisconsin—and Minnesota, I might add. We get a political education about why margarine is an important food, but also why butter is “the product of a grudgeless cow.” I have to add my own recollections to all of Jennifer’s meanderings. As a little girl, margarine could not be sold in Minnesota, but you could get it in Iowa. My extremely frugal grandmother would buy cases of it when she was visiting relatives in Iowa and distribute it among family members. At that time, it was white and came in a one pound package with a little orange button of food coloring on the top of the plastic packaging. Grandma would pass the packages out to grandchildren, and we would have a contest to see who could do the best job getting the orange color mixed through the white goo. The winner got toast with margarine on top as the prize. How gross, now that I think about it!

Mixed in with this odd assortment of essays, we find an unusual  assortment of recipes. I haven’t tried any yet, because I have to buy some of the ingredients—on my next trip to Costco, I might add. I was especially intrigued by the spoon-bending noodles and the crock pot macaroni and cheese. Oh, and I am definitely going to try the “Best Kung Pao Chicken Recipe Ever.”

Through it all, Jennifer’s words speak so truly and lovingly about life and death, but especially about the bonds of family. She says, “Call it a keen aptitude for forgiveness or a defective short-term memory gene; our family is not one to hold grudges. It’s one of our best qualities.” I know Jennifer; I know some of her family. She speaks the truth, even if some of  her truths cause you to scratch your head.

Dear readers, you will love this book as much as I did. I loved the random thoughts, the recipes, the humor, and the pathos. Here is Jennifer’s website.

Anxious People

 By Fredrik Backman

Atria Books     2020

352 pages     Literary

As Fredrik Backman asserts at the beginning of Anxious People, “This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it’s always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is.”

I had just begun reading Anxious People when a book club friend said that she hated the book and couldn’t wait to finish it. “Too much stupid stuff happening in one day.” I, on the other hand, was laughing my head off at the ridiculous stuff that was happening, and the character study that was emerging.

An apartment-viewing goes horribly wrong on the day before New Year’s Eve in a small Swedish town. A bank robber had just tried to rob a cashless bank. Confused and scared, the robber ran into a neighboring apartment building where a viewing is in progress. The robber proceeds to hold all the viewers hostage. Besides the realtor, there is an older couple who buy and sell apartments, a young Lesbian couple looking for a home before their baby is born, a middle-aged well-to-do woman, and an old woman whose husband is parking the car. A father and son pair of policemen are first on the scene. What transpires is both hysterically funny and very introspective. And—oh yes—a bridge across the road from the apartment building plays a crucial role in the plot.

Backman is a master of creating interesting characters. We grow to know all the characters intimately, including their back stories, the reasons why they were viewing this particular apartment, and why they are such idiots. He has written several best sellers, including A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie was Here, and Beartown. Tom Hanks is going to star in the American movie version of A Man Called Ove. I am not sure that I have read many books where the characters are so well-defined and interesting. His commentary about human nature in the first chapter of Anxious People is only matched by his closing comments, when he thanks all the people who influenced the creation of the book.

Apparently suicide is something Backman has pondered in several of  his books, and I was especially taken by this quote: “So we learn to pretend, all the time, about our jobs and our marriages and our children and everything else. We pretend we’re normal. . . Sometimes it hurts, it really hurts, for no other reason than the fact that our skin doesn’t feel like it’s ours. Sometimes we panic because the bills need paying and we have to be grown-up and we don’t know how, because it’s so horribly, desperately easy to fail at being grown-up.”

My book club had a lively discussion about Anxious People last night. We talked about characters, motivation, and the idiocy of the entire scenario. We all felt that Anxious People was a remarkable book. This morning one club member sent everyone this article, which we all felt, explained Backman’s gifts. The author says “ All of Backman’s books focus on the amazingly complicated, beautiful, funny, unexpected, and sometimes tragic experience that we call life while featuring quirky characters that try to do their best at living it. That’s exactly where the magic of these books lies.”

I also appreciated the review in USA Today. Apparently Anxious People has been optioned for a movie. It should be great!

 

Wow, No Thank You

By Samantha Irby

Random House     2020

311 pages     Humor/Essays

Discovering Samantha Irby is like being transported to humor heaven. Filled with zingy one-liners about all facets of life, Irby is in rare form in Wow, No Thank You. The essays in the book cover an enormous number of topics, from Crone’s disease, to marrying a woman with children, to house repair, to being an introvert,  to urination and poop. Nothing is taboo to Irby, and everything in life can be a source of humor.

The other day, my sister said to me, “You laugh inappropriately, you know!” Well, I have to tell you I did a lot of inappropriate laughing while reading Wow, No Thank You. Frankly, my favorite people are those who don’t take themselves too seriously, and if there is one thing that can be said about Samantha Irby is that she doesn’t take herself too seriously.

My favorite essay concerns her move to Kalamazoo. Wait??? Kalamazoo??? I live in Kalamazoo. How did I not know about her? Then, as I looked closer, she started to look familiar to me. Had I actually met her sometime? She describes herself as a “middle-aged depressed lady with chronic diarrhea.” Well, many of my friends are middle-aged depressed ladies with chronic diarrhea. Finally, when I watched an interview on You Tube, I realized that while I hadn’t met her, I instantly identified with her work and her views on life. On the other hand, I think that I may have met her wife, who is a Kalamazoo school social worker and works part time at our neighborhood bookstore, Book Bug. Actually, the book launch was supposed to happen at the Book Bug this week. By the way, you can buy an autographed copy of Wow, No Thank You at This is a Bookstore, which is part of the Book Bug.  Kalamazoo friends, run, don’t walk, over there. Grab a copy before they are gone. They will curbside deliver it to you.

One of her favorite topics is her introversion. She says that she used to party a lot. “The only reason I stopped is because I got too old to do it right.” Being an introvert has become her theme for the interviews that have come since the book was released on Tuesday of this week. Because of Covid-19, she hasn’t been able to do any book launch events. Therefore, there are many, many online interviews. Here are a couple of interviews that I found especially pleasing: a written interview and a video interview.

When asked about how she was surviving being housebound for the past few weeks, Irby mentioned  that she is the master of social distancing, so being stuck at home was not a problem for her. What being housebound offered for me was the opportunity to revel in Irby’s crazy humor, quirky thinking, and downright gross musings. Would that I had the kind of verbal guts Samantha Irby has! You gotta love her! The New York Times reviewer absolutely adores her writing.

Irby says that she has had trouble making friends in Kalamazoo. Samantha, I want to be your friend. Find me on Facebook.

Little Weirds

By Jenny Slate

Little, Brown     2019

224 pages     Essays/Humor

“I was born on the boundary line between cold and hot, at the intersection of the two elements that make a clap of thunder. I was born at the time of year when the sun wants to warm the earth but the winter has frozen it almost to the point of permanent frigidity.”

Welcome to Jenny Slate’s mind. The essays in her new book, Little Weirds vary in length from a paragraph or two to several pages long. Some are deeply personal and some are just—well—weird. She writes about her marriage ending while at the same time remembering her childhood; she celebrates her family and her friendships while deploring Donald Trump’s presidency. She is very hard on herself while at the same time looking forward to a future of self-acceptance and self-love.

The NPR reviewer was quite critical of Slate’s writing, wishing it were more like her stand-up musings. Since I knew nothing of her stand-up career, I had to watch a couple of YouTube videos to get a sense of how she is in person. Many of the videos were appearances on late night shows. Here is one visit to Seth Meyers. All of the topics appear to be deeply personal and off-the-cuff funny. Frankly, I think that she is a person that you would like to know.

I felt that the essays were very uneven and much more vague than her stand-up sets. Read it for yourself and form your own opinion. My advice, however, is to read it in little bursts. It is a bit much to read in one sitting.

Jenny Slate has a special on Netflix. It is called Stage Fright.  At least now I know who Jenny Slate is.

Nothing to See Here

By Kevin Wilson

Ecco     2019

272 pages     Literary

As I was reading Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, I remembered  a time long ago, when one of my children threw such a bad fit at the grocery store that I had to haul him out of the grocery cart, leave all the groceries in the cart, and quickly exit the store in disgrace. Many of us have been there—but Bessie and Roland, the children of a soon-to-be US Secretary of State burst into flames when they get agitated. Wow! Now that’s a fit to which any child should aspire!

Madison calls upon her long-time friend Lillian in desperation. Her husband’s twin 10-year-olds are coming to live with them and she needs someone to care for them. Their mother has died, and they are going to  come to live on their father’s family estate in Tennessee. Jasper, Madison’s husband, is a senator and will soon be appointed Secretary of State. Bessie and Roland must be kept out of sight. Because, of course, no one can know that the children have this unbelievable “disability.” Madison, of course, doesn’t reveal this well-kept secret to Lillian, as she convinces her to come and take a nanny job on a short-term basis.

Lillian doesn’t have anything else going on in her life, and so she goes with Carl, the family’s caretaker to pick up the children. She very abruptly discovers why these children are to be housed in the guest house and hidden out of sight, and she quickly has to figure out what in the world to do with them. Lillian describes Carl as “a man who was really into watches,” which I found hugely amusing, although Carl definitely is not an “amusing” man. Thank goodness he is there, though, because as things evolve, Lillian ends up really needing his services and his problem solving skills.

There is so much to report about the book. It is extremely humorous, extremely honest, and earnestly sincere. Lillian is an incredible narrator. She is tough but extremely vulnerable with a remarkable understanding of herself and her place in the world. She is a wonderful foil for her great friend Madison, who has a similar sense of herself, but Madison is in a totally different place in the world—equally tough but also equally needy.

I became completely connected to the vulnerability of Bessie and Roland, children whose entire lives have been torn apart. They are so hungry for human attachment, and it is obvious that they are not going to receive any love from their father or step-mother.  They ask Lillian, for example, if they can sleep with her, and they wind themselves around her in the night—Roland with his finger in Lillian’s mouth. They are very afraid that they will be separated from her, and she becomes equally as attached to them.

I am always looking for stories that I have not read before, and this is definitely one of those. Wilson is a terrific storyteller, and the fairy-tale, slightly lunatic quality of the narration seems totally appropriate to the subject matter. He has you laughing one minute, and crying the next, celebrating the ways in which Lillian approaches the children’s needs and desires while at the same time worrying  about the possibility that  the children will lose their cool and burn the house down.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner, the reviewer in the New York Times felt much the same way. (By the way she is the author of Fleishman is in Trouble that I reviewed a couple of months ago.) She begins her review, “Good Lord, I can’t believe how good this book is.” And she closes her review thus: “Wilson writes with such a light touch that it seems fairly impossible for the book to have a big emotional payoff. But there is, and that’s the brilliance of the novel—that it distracts you with these weirdo characters and mesmerizing and funny sentences and then hits you in a way you didn’t see coming. You’re laughing so hard you don’t even realize that you’ve suddenly caught fire.”

Nothing to See Here is a book that you will want to sit down with and read all the way through in one sitting, just so you can absorb its brilliance, without any distractions.

Kevin Wilson is the author of several novels, including The Family Fang. Here is his website.

The Second Worst Restaurant in France

By Alexander McCall Smith

Pantheon     2019

256 pages     Fiction

A reader doesn’t pick up an Alexander McCall Smith book to delve into an elaborate, drawn-out plot. The reader chooses to read an Alexander McCall Smith book to be entertained. The Second Worst Restaurant in France is classic McCall Smith. It is witty and wise, with delightful characters, and cracking-good dialogue. Is it brilliant? No. Is it fun? Yes.

Paul Stuart is a Scottish cookbook author. He first appears in the book, My Italian Bulldozer, which I have not read. While that book has Paul writing a food guide to Tuscany, he is now under contract to write a larger tome about the philosophy of food—a task that is formidable, and he is having trouble getting a handle on the topic.

 Paul is an appealing character because, above all, he is very accommodating and understanding. We find out very early in The Second Worst Restaurant that he is not fond of cats, and he is driven away from his home by his girlfriend’s cats. A cousin, Chloe, offers to take him with her to a small village in France where she has rented a house. Paul thinks that if he separates from his girlfriend and her cats and goes to a quiet place, he might make some progress on writing his book.

When they get to the village, Paul finds that it has little to offer except a very good bakery and a very bad restaurant. Some actually consider it to be the “second worst restaurant in France.” Paul takes on the task of improving the restaurant because one of the cooks actually is quite talented. This part of the plot reads like a Restaurant Impossible episode. But again, we don’t read McCall Smith books for their sterling plots.

We read his books for characters like Chloe, who is brilliant, annoying, and memorable. Paul remarks that Chloe is a throwback to earlier times “when people made tactless remarks and rarely apologized for what they were.” Chloe can talk about everyone and everything, but Paul finds himself worrying about how much truth there is in her endless commentary. I think that Chloe is a remarkable character, and I found myself appreciating everything she had to say. Here is one quote I enjoyed: “I read the other day about a Corsican saint called St. Baltazaru of Calvi, who performed the miracle of changing wild boar into sausages without benefit of a charcutier. Apparently, he just had to touch a wild boar and it would become sausages—just like that.”

McCall Smith is an extremely prolific author of several series, all with delightful characters. The books are all a lot of fun. My favorite series remains The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, which are based in Botswana, where McCall Smith taught Law at the University of Botswana. 

I needed something light and fun to read on a long plane ride, and The Second Worst Restaurant in France was perfect. It almost made me want to head to France to seek out the restaurant and see how much it had improved.

  

What Could Go Wrong?

By Brett Grayson

Panman Press     2018

279 pages     Humor/Essays

Last summer I took two grandchildren to the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek Michigan. It was a beautiful day, and we were having a great time. We arrived in the African Safari area of the zoo. My 7-year-old granddaughter walked beside me while my 5-year-old grandson ran on down the walkway to the African animal exhibits. I hollered to him, “Stop at the giraffes, Davick!” Adela and I arrived at the giraffes, and no Davick. I told my granddaughter to run on to the next site, the antelope, and see if he was there. She arrived back—no Davick. We rushed on and found the education area where there were several attendants. I reported that my grandson had run on ahead, and we couldn’t find him. Panic ensued. People started rushing around, sending messages about a missing little boy; Adela collapsed in a heap on the ground sobbing her heart out. I really was quite sure that he wasn’t in the fields with the antelope and tigers—he was much too cautious; but he loved dogs—maybe he was in the wild dog den! After about 5 anxious minutes, Davick came running back to me shouting at the top of his voice, “Grandma! Adela! I found the lions! I found the lions!”

These type of heart-throbbing occurrences with children form the basis of What Could Go Wrong, a series of humorous essays about the pitfalls and foibles of parenting. The book is aptly named, because indeed, if anything can go wrong in parenting, it certainly can and will.

The first chapter is very funny about their little girl walking in on her parents during an intimate moment. Almost every set of parents can relate to that. I can, but that would be another whole story. The first chapter sets the tone for the entire book. Funny and relatable, but also poignant. Every marriage, every family has its marvelous moments, its horrific moments, its touching moments, its bizarre moments, and its loving moments. Grayson explores them all. You will laugh and cry all at the same time. As it says on the cover “My mostly comedic journey through marriage, parenting, and depression.” I am not sure that I would put the book in the hands of a couple exploring the possibilities of parenthood, but every new parent—and every old parent—can certainly relate and laugh until they cry!

Grayson is a new author. It will be interesting to look for more of his work. His publicist sent me the book. Here is his website.

As I was reading the book, I came across a cartoon website that deals with many of the same parenting issues that Grayson addresses in his book. Check out Lunarbaboon. They go together well.

Calypso

By David Sedaris

Little, Brown     2018

259 pages     Humor

I have eagerly read essays by David Sedaris in his hilarious books and magazine articles over the last many years, beginning with listening to Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim on a long car trip. I saw him when he came to Kalamazoo in 2011.  So, I was overjoyed when we chose Calypso for our book club this month. The reviewer in the Guardian says that his diary-essays defy description; “he’s the lone inhabitant of a category of his own invention.” Yesterday, I finished reading Calypso, and  I’m trying to figure out how I feel about it. Yes, in many ways, it is similar to his other books, but Sedaris is showing age and maturity in this collection that we have not seen before. Still funny; still ironic; still sarcastic; but just older.

The major topics of these essays are death and family. He approaches for the first time his mother’s alcoholism. We have met his mother many times in his books but her alcoholism has never been a major topic. He also talks a great deal about his aged father—with the grudging respect for the way in which his father has mellowed over the years.

Calypso is much darker and more honest that any of his other writings. Death is ever present in this volume. In the poignant story, “Now We are Five,” he tells of the first Thanksgiving at the family cottage following the suicide of his sister Tiffany. Sedaris, his siblings and their families, as well as his partner, Hugh, are trying to come to grips with what happened. Sedaris manages to put a spin on the narrative in such a way that we acknowledge their pain but smile at the way the family is able to move on. Sedaris comments, “They’ve always done that for me, my family. It’s what keeps me coming back.”

Many of the stories in this volume concern family gatherings at Sea Section, the family cottage in North Carolina. David and Hugh bought this cottage so that the family could gather several times a year. Sometimes I wonder how the family reckons with always being in the limelight of his stories. As I was reading this week, I decided to go to Google Images and see if I could find pictures of his siblings. One thing I found was an article about his brother Paul, who is a small business owner. In the article, it mentions that Paul is always having people ask him if he is related to the famous David Sedaris. Wonder how Paul felt about David writing about his liquid diet? But then, if your brother has been writing about you your entire adult life, I guess you rather get used to it.

One of the reasons that I relate so well to Sedaris is because he loves his family so much. However, in a very well-placed essay, he described how he shut his sister Tiffany out of his life. He is as shocked by his action as we, the readers, are. We who are close to our family would say, "I could never do that!" but then we have never shared that life experience.

Well, most of you know David Sedaris and his writing. The reviewer in the New Your Times says it best. “The brilliance of David Sedaris’s writing is that his very essence, his aura, seeps through the pages of his book like an intoxicating cloud, mesmerizing us so that his logic becomes ours.”

The Little Old Lady Behaving Badly

By Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg

Harper Collins     2018

464 pages     Mystery/Humor

The Little Old Lady Behaving Badly describes the further adventures of the Pensioner’s League: a group of old folk’s home Robin Hoods, who are seeking to create special events for their elderly compatriots and to justly compensate the low wage workers in the nursing homes and hospitals that serve them. The book is translated from the Swedish.

This is the third book in the series, and as some reviewers have noted, perhaps it ought to be the last. It is absurdist humor at its best (?). I chose it because of the title, since I consider myself a “little old lady behaving badly,” and thus I had few expectations and quite a few laughs. Martha is the mastermind of the group, and the others take roles that utilize their skills and sometimes involve their adult children. The first crime of this episode included robbing a bank using a garbage truck to suck the money out of the safe. Of course, the truck was full of garbage, so all the loot had to be cleaned and ended up smelling of vinegar, their cleaner of choice. When they had to decide what they would do with the stolen garbage truck, they drove it into their vacationing neighbor’s pool, covered it with cement, and planted sod and bushes over it. See what I mean about absurdist!

The other adventures of the pensioners aren’t quite so funny, although they are extremely creative. And, because they are old, they never get caught and actually cause little suspicion. Additionally, the book may have been about 100 pages too long and one adventure too crazy. Of course, I have been sitting at the beach this week, so this was a perfect beach read because my brain is already fried. My next read has someone die in it, and I am having trouble getting into it—not quite appropriate for the beach.

Other books in the series besides The Little Old Lady Behaving Badly include The Little Old Lady who Broke All the Rules and The Little Old Lady who Struck Lucky Again. The book reminded me of the movie, Going in Style about old men bank robbers.

Noir: A Novel

By Christopher Moore

William Morrow    2018

352 pages     Noir/Humor

Oh my goodness! What a hoot!  Noir: A Novel is a send-up of every pretentious noir or hard-boiled detective novel ever written.

As many of you know, I have been studying noir over the past several months, ever since I read Deadbomb Bingo Ray last year. Then Akashic Books sent me three volumes of noir and neo-noir short stories which I reviewed. Which led me to try to discover the difference between noir and neo-noir. Then, just recently, a literature professor told me that our local author Bonnie Jo Campbell’s books could be classified as “country noir.” Now that was a term I had never heard of and will be another addition to my reading agenda.

Well, anyway, let’s talk about Noir: A Novel, the humorist Christopher Moore’s newest effort. Frankly, I had never read anything by Christopher Moore, but if all his books are as funny as this one, I have got to tune in to him more frequently.

 The book takes place in 1947 as the US is getting resettled following the war. The protagonist—the main protagonist, at least—is Sam, a bartender at a grimy San Francisco saloon. The other protagonist is a snake! We meet both in the first chapter when Sam arrives at work and finds his boss dead on the floor, killed by snake venom. The bar owner, Sal, was killed by the snake that Sam had delivered to the bar because he has plans to go into the “snake whiz” business. Apparently many Asian men are eager to buy snake pee as a cure for erectile dysfunction. 

Of course there is a girl; in this case a gorgeous dime store waitress named Stilton. Sam calls her “Cheese.” He falls instantly in love with her after she walks into the bar one night. Sam says that Stilton has “the kind of legs that kept her butt from resting on her shoes.”  Much of the plot hinges on Sam saving Cheese from a gathering of powerful, rich men that she has been hired to entertain at a camp in the woods outside the city.

Oh, and I almost forgot, there is an alien—a little green moon man. And a group of men—maybe government agents—out to find the little guy. At this point, any resemblance to any classical noir goes completely off the rails, and the reader just can’t stop laughing. One reviewer says: “In keeping with the noir style, there are many divergent plotlines that ultimately have to be tied up, and Moore’s solution—no spoilers here—is unique to the genre.  

The riffs on “noir speak” are incredibly funny. I found myself underlining something silly on nearly every page. For example:

·         “The fog lay spread across the city like a drowned whore—damp, cold, smelling of salt and diesel—a sea-sodden streetwalker who’d just bonked a tugboat.”

·         “If you’re planning a caper, that’s the flatfoot you want flapping after you. That mug couldn’t catch a cough in a tire fire.”

·         “he looked like a black-and-white character that had stumbled into a Technicolor movie.”

Well, I could go on and on. Those three quotes were on just 3 pages. Dashell Hammet and Raymond Chandler are probably turning over in their graves. A couple of the major reviewers, including Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly didn’t particularly like Noir: A Novel, but most likely they weren’t in the proper frame of mind. I read it over the Memorial Day weekend when the temperatures were in the 90s and my brain was as frizzled as the garden I had just planted. It all made perfect sense to me.

Christopher Moore’s website.

Al Franken, Giant of the Senate

by Senator Al Franken

 Twelve 2017

416 pages     Nonfiction/Memoir/Humor

Audio Book

As we were planning our long road trip earlier this summer, I asked my husband what book he would like to listen to in the car. My regular readers know that my husband is a lifelong Republican (albeit currently a very disillusioned Republican). He suggested Al Franken, Giant of the Senate. Not surprisingly, that was the book I was thinking about, so I jumped at the chance to add it to our audio collection. Might I suggest that this is the perfect book for audio, because Franken reads it himself and is able to add all the nuances that make it both incredibly effective and incredibly ironic—irony being his comedic modus operandi.

These are his words to introduce the book: "Senator Al Franken has represented Minnesota in the United States Senate since 2009. Before entering politics, he was an award-winning comedy writer, author, and radio talk show host. He's been married to his wife, Franni, for 41 years — many of them happy. They have two children, Thomasin and Joe, and three grandchildren. Senator Franken graduated from Harvard College and received his doctorate in right-wing megalomania studies from Trump University." Admittedly, the book was written just as the election was decided, so his comments about Trump are only a small part of the narrative.

Primarily a memoir, Franken tells the story of how he got to where he currently is—a two-term Democrat Senator from Minnesota. His first career, of course, was as a comedy writer, for Saturday Night Live and the movies. When he decided to run for the Senate in his home state of Minnesota, he found that his constituents were not interested in having a comedian for a Senator. After all, they had already lived through a wrestler as a governor. So, in order to be elected, he had to work extra hard at being serious, all the while repressing joke after joke in his brain. He says that it was the hardest thing he ever had to do. His brain bleeds humor, such as the time he got in trouble for rolling his eyes at Mitch McConnell. His staff monitored his comments for the entire first term in office.

Now, well into his second term, he is able to let it all out. Al Franken, Giant of the Senate is funny but also very true. During his first campaign, his opponents mined material from his career to attack him. At first he was offended because the offensive remarks they were using had been his job, and he felt that to have to apologize for work he had done as a comedy writer was to sell out his career. Eventually, however, he was able to show Minnesotans that he was very serious and after an extremely close election and months of recounts, he was able to take his seat in the Senate.

Besides being funny, the book also shows Franken to be very serious about his work and extremely well-prepared. I was impressed by that, but I was also impressed by Franken's understanding of the value of humor in political discourse. He discusses which members of the Senate have a sense of humor, and which do not. He says, for example, that Lindsey Graham has the best sense of humor in the Senate and Ted Cruz has the least. He believes that a well-placed quip can ease tension in any room, and now that he has been in the Senate for 10 years, he can occasionally add a note of humor to a discussion. There is some talk of Franken running for President in 2020. Imagine that—someone who could make (and take) a joke.

My husband and I really enjoyed our time with Al Franken, and we heartily recommend the book. We have read several political books, including Being Nixon: A Man Divided and books about the Obamas, and Orrin Hatch. None of these had any laugh lines in them, so Al Franken, Giant of the Senate was refreshing in its candidness. The reviewer in the New York Times thinks that there is a lot of "stale recitations of liberal talking points" throughout the book, but that as political memoirs go, it's a "whole lot funnier" than most. 

You will find Franken's interview with Stephen Colbert about his book interesting.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest

by J. Ryan Stradal

Pamela Dorman Books     2015

320 pages     Fiction

From the moment I saw the title, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, I knew I had to read it. Then, in the very first chapter, we meet Lars Thorvald who works at the family bakery, Gustaf's and Sons in Duluth, Minnesota. Now, you must know that I grew up in Duluth and went to Duluth East High School with two cousins, Gail and Gretchen Gustafson, whose fathers owned Gustafson's Bakery. When I read Gustaf's and Sons bakery—I was hooked. This author knew my life story!

Lars marries a woman named Cynthia and they have a baby daughter named Eva. Lars wants to make Eva appreciate the best in food, so the first chapter is devoted to the types of food he plans to feed this much wanted child—wanted by him, at any rate. Cynthia soon finds that she is not cut out to be a mother, and leaves Lars and baby Eva for a career as a sommelier. The novel, then is the story of Eva's life and the people who are connected to her—sometimes only peripherally. Eva carries on her father's fascination with food, moving quickly from lutefisk to hot peppers to world class cuisine. Each chapter is almost a stand-alone story. Sometimes Eva plays a large role in the story; sometimes she hardly appears at all. The New York Times reviewer calls this an "impressive feat of narrative jujitsu".

This s just the bare bones description  of a novel that almost defies description. The format is so unique, both poignant and hilariously funny on the same page. Eva and food are the links that hold the entire enterprise together. The food is wondrous. From Lars making the lutefisk in the first chapter to walleye, casseroles, and the wine and food culture that is invading even the Upper Midwest. My favorite chapter concerns devoutly religious Pat and the Lutheran ladies who take their bar cookies to a competition judged by Eva, by now a famous chef. This is one story line that you almost have to be a Lutheran from Minnesota to appreciate fully. Pat is a character right out of Prairie Home Companion. 

Nothing that I can say can truly do Kitchens of the Great Midwest justice. It is just a great send up of the Midwest, of foodie culture, and of bar cookies made of peanut butter, caramels, and chocolate chips. The characters are wonderful creations, the plot contorted, and the landscape totally unique. Stradal knows these people.  Be prepared to laugh and love!

The review in the New York Times.

J. Ryan Stradal's website.