Does every new humor writer have to be described as “the new David Sedaris”? Maybe I should be pleased we've moved on – it used to be every new humor writer was “the new Bill Bryson.” Or “the new Dave Barry.” Before that it was Erma Bombeck.
I like David Sedaris. And Bill Bryson and Dave Barry and Erma Bombeck. If I want to read their very distinctive styles of humor, I'll read the real thing. I've been noticing that comparisons are a danger sign. Should you visit “the Paris of Siberia”? Or listen to “the Belgian Elvis”? I'd rather go to the original Paris and listen to the real Elvis (but not at the same time, I think).
The comparisons are out of control. It's like grade inflation – you have to gush just to keep pace. There are Canadian Bill Brysons, a lesbian Bill Bryson, a Bill Bryson of service management, the Bill Bryson of dentistry, a transvestite Bill Bryson. (Okay, I made up that last one.)
Mark Twain (Mark Twain!) is described by Mental Floss Magazine as “the Bill Bryson of his day.”
Curious as to who these paragons of comedy were compared to when they were young unknowns, I poked around and found some reviews of their first books. According to The Library Journal, writing about Bryson's first book, Lost Continent, “As the book grinds on, it descends into a litany of 'then I went here, and next I went there.' Browsers reading the opening bits will snatch it off the shelves, but many will return it unfinished.” Publishers Weekly was also unimpressed. "Some of Bryson's comments are hilarious--if you enjoy the nonstop whining wisecracks of a 36-year-old kid." But there were few comparisons to other writers. Bryson, it seems, was an original, if whiny, voice.
Bryson, Twain, Parker, Sedaris
David Sedaris' first book, Barrel Fever, didn't do much better. “Ironic, detached, cool, with an eye for the perverse and weird, Sedaris seems to have all the tools of your basic postmodern humorist. There's only one problem: the guy ain't funny.” said the Library Journal. Booklist compared him favorably to Dorothy Parker, though.
Kirkus, in their review of At Wit's End, called newcomer Erma Bombeck. “the Joan Rivers of Ohio suburbia.” That was a compliment in 1967.
Of course, if you must write a glowing review of a book you didn't like at all, you can resort to outrageous exaggeration, as New York Magazine did about Bryson's Lost Continent: "The kind of book John Steinbeck might have written if he'd traveled with David Letterman instead of Charley."
Here are a few books by authors who require no bogus comparisons to Hemingway or Shakespeare or even Joan Rivers. They are just funny.
Celia Rivenbark's You Can't Drink All Day if You Don't Start in the Morning
Laurie Notaro's An Idiot Girl's Christmas
A. J. Jacobs' The Guinea Pig Diaries
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Deven McKay
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Comments
Her character Amber/Cuicatl observes that the media always writes about her as the "Latina Janis Joplin or Latina Brittany (Spears)." It's a sad commentary we can't just evaluate things on their own merits and allow for everyone to have a unique voice.
Whether it has to do with marketing a book or making it more accessible to consumers, its a flaw in most reviews.
God forbid every writer should be allowed to have a unique voice.
Great observation!
Amelia -- Janis Joplin and Brittany Spears? That says better than anything how useless such comparisons are. Now I have to go read her book, thanks for the tip!
Banterrific -- I agree that shorthand can be useful, but just as often it's misleading.
I would also recommend "I Love Everybody (and other Atrocious Lies" by Notaro over "Idiot Girl's Christmas."
But I agree with your larger point: Those women don't need to be compared to others. Both are riotously funny sometimes.
It's a larger issue than just in literature, though; it often happens in sports as well—the eternal search for the "Next ____"
Ranjit--Nice one!
Recc Notaro "We Thought You'd be Prettier"
MadamRuth -- Yes! And Stephenie Meyer.
Andrea -- I absolutely agree about Dorothy Parker. No one comes close.
Thank God that doesn't happen in the literary world.
You Can't Drink All Day if You Don't Start in the Morning is a stand alone chuckle. Being a bartender, I will now chastise people I see at 4 in the afternoon who say "I've been drinking all day. I started at noon." You wuss... I know women that start in the wee hours of the morning.
Someone once compared my dulcitar playing to Jim Croce's guitar playing. I was embarrassed. But I'm not sure who I was embarrassed FOR.
For the record, before you go off wasting your time looking up my dulcitar videos on YT - no. I do not sound like Jim Croce. My dulcitar doesn't sound like his guitar. And I don't sing.
Only if I DID sing, I'd like to sing like Jim Croce. Only maybe in a slightly higher pitch.
Great post! Rated!!!