I heard Simon Rich interviewed on a podcast recently and they discussed this book, Rich’s most recent. It sounded right up my alley, so I immediately put it on hold at the library and finally got my hands on it.
I don’t know that I’ve ever laughed so hard from reading.
New Teeth is a collection of comedic short stories. All are absurd in their premises, which is of course part of where the comedy comes from. Not all of them were quite my speed, but the ones that were– in particular, Learning The Ropes (a pair of deadly pirates who start every sentence with “Arrr” discover a young girl is a stowaway and quickly become so fond of her that they raise her as their own, which is when they start discovering they disagree with their approaches to parenting), and The Big Nap (a noir detective story about a world-weary three-year old who’s hired by his younger sister, who has a mysterious past, to help find her missing stuffed unicorn)–were delightful.
The Big Nap had me laughing a lot, once so hard I was literally in tears. Combining my long-time enjoyment of noir detective stories and the behaviour of young kids was perfectly executed. It was easily the funniest thing I’ve read in decades, full stop.
But now I’m at a creative crossroads again. I wrote last year that I had some combined eye-opening and timely insight into essays being a legit publishable format I should consider working toward, further underscored since then through reading a few David Sedaris books. So I’ve been hammering away at personal essays, adding in humour where it works but generally a pretty straight-laced collection. But here Simon Rich has shown me that wholly fictional short story collections, which I long ago thought was a bit pie-in-the-sky to shoot for, are alive and well.
For those not in the know, I wrote short stories from the time I could put two sentences together and did so pretty exclusively until I was in my 20s when my best friend suggested I take a crack at screenwriting, which became a new format I focused on. Short stories kept creeping in, though. And ideas for more always have.
With New Teeth, Simon Rich has shown me that short stories still (nay, have always) had their place.
So I’m by no means abandoning the essays. But while I work on those I’m also getting back into writing short stories as well. It’s just more to work on toward two separate, but related, publishing goals. I don’t want to divide my attention too much or I risk leaving projects behind completely, but I’d be foolish to ignore the inspiration Rich has fired up in me. It also offers the chance to add some levity to writing the essays, which have gotten a bit heavy lately.
All of which has steered me off topic a bit.
New Teeth! If you like well done, funny writing, do yourself a favour and check it out.