have you ever read Testament To Youth ? gaspingly achingly sad and yet
redemptive with the soldiers arriving at the field station with stories of
angels they had seen on the battlefield - or should I say above the
battlefield? they seemed to be usually hovering above
I don't know any of the writers you mention - but writers who have made me
laugh out loud while I am reading them are Jerome K. Jerome (Three Men In A
Boat) Thurber (I was reading him on my first visit to Venice last year and I
was having Thurber screams on the Grand Canal )and Clive James - Unreliable
Memoirs.
Also I always beg the son not to put a Bill Hicks video on because he makes
me wet myself and beg for mercy.
----Original Message Follows----
From: Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: "Poetryetc: poetry and poetics" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Abrupt Snap
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:02:49 +0100
At the time, "Post Office" was dangerously funny for me, though I haven't
read Bukowski since. I didn't have an extremely sad experience during that
stay in the hospital, so I'm a bit surprised your husband had an equally
painful physiological experience with a very sad book.
If a writer can make me laugh hysterically during a live reading (examples
which come to mind right now include Ed Dorn, Ed Sanders, Anne Waldman,
Christian Bok, & Jaap Blonk), I consider that reaction as a marker of high
quality.
Barry
On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 01:20:14 +1000, Jennifer Compton
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Is Post Office funny? I have been meaning to read that for a while.
>
>You made me remember husband in hospital for 2 hernias. He begged for
books
>that weren't funny so I got him Testament Of Youth by Vera Brittain, which
>is the saddest book I know.
>But it was no good. He told me that weeping was as painful as laughing.
>
>cheers - jen
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