Reading: The laugh out loud edition.
Who are the “laugh out louders”? Or where are they? So many book jackets claiming they are “Laugh out loud funny!” yet I rarely see anyone actually laughing out loud when they read a book. I’ve caught a lot of trains and buses in my life and seen a lot of people reading books. Many of them the “laugh out loud funny” kind. But I’ve almost never seen any laughing. Not even a little giggle. Definitely not a “HA HA HA HA! THIS IS A FUNNY PART! HOO, BOY, THIS IS MAKING ME LAUGH A LOT ON THIS TRAIN I’M ON HERE!”
Alright. I might have seen it once. But it wasn’t a laugh. More a repressed chortle.
While we’re on the topic, why is it always “laugh out loud funny”? Isn’t the “funny” superfluous? Books are never “laugh out loud terrifying!” or “laugh out loud romantic”. No one says “Oh my God, I was reading this book on the train. It was laugh out loud boring. I could hardly hold my sides together! Everyone was looking at me. I nearly fell off my chair roaring. You have to read it, it was just so boring!”
I digress.
I love comedy - books, TV shows, movies, radio shows. It’s my favourite genre. I don’t often laugh out loud at it, though. It’s rare. Maybe a few times a year. Mostly comedy just gives me a warm inner glow and a sense that the world is working as it should. Much like when someone drives past, honking their horn dramatically because he thinks you’re driving too slow, then you see the flash of the speed camera that just caught Mr Honky doing 70 in a 50 zone and the world feels like a temporarily good and just place.
All this is to say that I read a book that genuinely unexpectedly made me laugh out loud and it was delightful. It’s Jessica Dettmann’s How To Be Second Best (amazon link) and I highly recommend it because it is…. laugh out loud delightful.
This be the book.
I don’t know how I hadn’t come across her before. She’s Australian and writes funny domestic fiction, which is right up my alley. I’m glad I’ve found her now though because I have two more of her books to read. This one was her first and it featured a divorced, long-suffering (so long-suffering, my God), funny woman with two children and, oh look, let’s save some time by reading the blurb: Going from one child to two is never all that easy for a family, but when Emma's husband simultaneously fathers a third child three doors up the street, things get very tricky, very fast.
No longer is it enough for Emma to be the best wife and mother - now she's trying to be the best ex-wife, and the best part-time parent to her ex's love child, and that's before she even thinks about adding a new bloke to the mix.
Set in an upwardly mobile, ultra-competitive suburb, this is a funny, biting, heartwarming modern comedy that looks at the roles we play, how we compete, and what happens when we dare to strive for second-best.
It was very good. And it had a joke halfway through that properly made me laugh out loud. And many other good jokes but that was the one that got me. I won’t spoil it but it involved WD40. That’s all I’m saying.
Thankfully I was only on the couch, not on the train so I could do it without scaring anyone. And the book jacket doesn’t promise it’s laugh out loud funny. Although it is.
Recommended.
