Why this book made me cry...
Ok so Demetri Martin is technically right....it IS a book, but it reads more like a grab bag of crazy comedic devices. You never know what the next chapter will bring. A short play? A crossword puzzle? A 2 page long palindrome (which is it's own hilarious mess)? A series of drawings, charts and graphs? Or you may simply encounter a page that says, "This page is unnecessary."
While all the chapters were pretty funny, the "diary excerpts of a fruit vendor" chapter literally had me in tears. In this chapter, a man writes in his diary about his new business venture as a fruit vendor. He builds a fancy stand, stocks it with delicious fruit, and sets up on a nice street corner only to have it knocked down nearly every day by a high speed car chase. And seriously, this fruit stand guy cannot believe how many times he has to rebuild this thing only to have it knocked over or accidentally push it over himself. Every. Single. Day. My description of it is not that funny, I can see, and now I look back and think, "Why did this make me laugh so hard I cried/peed (ok not really. no pee)?" It may have had something to do with the fact that I was reading it out loud to my husband and a friend, and it just sounds extra ridiculous out loud.
One of my other favorite chapters is "Epigrams, Fragments & Light Verse," in which Demetri Martin offers readers advice and poignant observations. Such observations include:
"Man:
Never more like a snowstorm
than when he sneezes
whilst eating rice."
"Let no man's deathbed
be a futon."
"A scented candle left unwatched
soon becomes a larger scented candle,
whose scent is 'entire house'. "
Some readers may have trouble getting used to the fact that there is nothing cohesive about this book, but once you get used to the formatting, it really is hilarious. Also, a man who wrote a 2 page palindrome or 1000 words to describe a picture deserves a chance, right?
