Ten Great Books With No Sense of Humour
(On an acquaintance’s Substack I recently read, “The artist who has no sense of humour is always mediocre, right? Saul Bellow pointed out that all the greatest books are comic,” and I thought, Nonsense. Here, alphabetically by author, are ten great books that are absolutely humourless—properly humourless—books that would in fact be ruined by humour and have therefore been scoured of it. That said, it’s possible that you’ll see comedy where I don’t. Regardless, and by contrast, here is a list of 25 books that are saved by their humour.)
One Friday in April: A Story of Suicide and Survival by Donald Antrim
The Lady in White by Christian Bobin
The Genocides by Thomas Disch
The Reappearance of Sam Webber by Jonathon Scott Fuqua
A Sorrow Beyond Dreams by Peter Handke
A Personal Matter by Kenzaburō Ōe
My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
Confession by Leo Tolstoy
Waiting for God by Simone Weil
Stoner by John Williams
— June 25, 2024