Somewhere along the way I picked up this book and it's been sitting on my nightstand for at least a year. I am trying to work my way through these books so I can free up the space for more! I started reading this one, fully intent on maybe or maybe not reading all of it. I have no problem tossing a book aside as Dorothy Parker said in this quote: ""This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force." But in this case, I'm so glad I kept reading.
The Funnies turned out to be a hilarious book that was also touching and sincere and very realistic. In a "nut"shell, I loved it. I'd never heard of Mr. Lennon nor this book, which was published in 1999, but I highly recommend it.
A man with no direction, Tim Mix, is the son of a famous cartoonist, who is thrust into that world when his father dies. The pitiful life of Tim and his siblings is told with great humor and surprising compassion, especially when Tim is helping his mother in the nursing home use the restroom. Just listen to this:
"And when I had put my mother back into her bed and she again fell asleep, I felt a tacit acknowledgment between us of the fact of her death, which waited for her like a gift from a distant relative that had been shipped but had not yet arrived."
Book Read: The Funnies
Author: J. Robert Lennon
ISBN: 1-57322-126-0
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