Help Sam Laugh
A high school student of mine, Sam, was diagnosed last Friday with agressive leukemia. He's in intensive care receiving treatment. He can't have visitors right now because of his depressed immune system, but he has sent word that he'd like some humorous get well cards. Sam is a great kid with an equally great sense of humor which is a little off beat. My heart aches to give this kid a reason to smile or even chuckle. It so happens that we are off the Portland this weekend and we'll be at Powell's Book Store. If you know of any book titles that might do the trick, please let me know in the comments section or email me directly.
thanks,
K
thanks,
K
posted by K at 7:02 PM
5 Comments:
I whole-heartedly recommend Diary of Indignities by Patrick Hughes. It is a memoir of sorts and it's extremely profane and probably the funniest thing I've read in a long time. Melissa and I would read passages to each other and just crack up.
I hope that Sam gets better. I think that knowing people like you are out in the world pulling for him will help.
If you can't find a copy of that book, let me know.
Good Omens (The Nice & Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch), a novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. ("Nice," in this context, meaning precisely correct.)
(And the following is mostly a cut-and-paste job from an Amazon.com review.)
A zany tale of the bungling of Armageddon featuring an angel, a demon, a misplaced 11-year-old Antichrist, and the long-dead doomsaying witch. A satire and a parody (most obviously of a certain recently remade 1970s horror film starring Gregory Peck), it lampoons everything in sight, from Elvis sightings to televangelists to the destruction of all intelligent life ("nothing left but dust and fundamentalists"). Of course the demon drives a 1926 Bentley. Of course any tape left in its glove box for more than two weeks turns into something by Queen. Of course the flaming sword used by War is delivered to her by International Express. Critics of Swift and Twain would find much to criticize in Good Omens.
LONG rumored to be the next film project, or the one after that, for Terry Gilliam, a rumor revived for a time by the success of the film Stardust.
(And while in Portland this weekend, check out A Midsommer Nights Dreame by the Original Practice Shakespeare Festival opening its run in NoPo parks -- visit http://www.opsfest.org for more information. The Original Practice Shakespeare Festival. Because Shakespeare should be a little dangerous.)
The best I did during my broken leg summer was "A Man Without a Country" by Vonnegut and "Shakespeare's Insults."
Good luck,
More suggestions from others in my household:
From a 20-something: Anything by American absurdist fiction writer Christopher Moore (Practical Demonkeeping, Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings, The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror, Fool (a retelling of Lear from the POV of, of course))
And from a more mature perspective: Laughing Matters: A Celebration of American Humor, anthologized by Gene Shalit (of which Powell's happen to have in stock ONE(1) trade paperback edition for $5.95 -- such a deal!)
added to which:
anything by either Pratchett or Gaiman writing solo or with others Douglas Adams
classic Robert Benchley
classic PG Wodehouse
Graham Roumieu's Bigfoot books make me laugh out loud. A lot. "Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir" and "Bigfoot: I not Dead" and "In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot."
Also, a little off kilter and amusing to me (but not to Adam): Glen Baxter's books.
Best wishes to Sam.
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