My
first novel, furtl, was a 2014 Kirkus Reviews book
of the year selection. The absurd near future of that book became not-so-absurd
one year later – a
xenophobic reality show president rose to power by exploiting social networks
and sowing division. OOF: An Online Outrage Fiesta for the Ages was released in
mid-2021. Not a sequel. But it does seek to provide similar catharsis for
readers who can’t seem to shake their belief that It. Can. Always. Get.
Stupider.
Award-winning
novelist and cultural critic Strobe Witherspoon interrogates his own
profession. It goes terribly. Strobe
Witherspoon just sold his latest…
The standard bearer of idiotic journeys. This eighteenth-century
funhouse mirror displays the underbelly of the human condition from many absurd
angles, including but not limited to xenophobic violence, intellectual hubris,
and false idol worship.
'Thus, gentle Reader, I have given thee a faithful History of my Travels for Sixteen Years, and above Seven Months; wherein I have not been so studious of Ornament as of Truth.'
In these words Gulliver represents himself as a reliable reporter of the fantastic adventures he has just set down; but how far can we rely on a narrator whose identity is elusive and whoses inventiveness is self-evident? Gulliver's Travels purports to be a travel book, and describes Gulliver's encounters with the inhabitants of four extraordinary places: Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the country of the Houyhnhnms. A consummately skilful…
War brings out the dumb in all of us. This book hits home for anyone that’s horrified by the alteration and weaponization of the English language from those holding power. The high-stakes bureaucratic incompetence and illogical war-time decision-making birthed its own special kind of paradox – the Catch-22 – that unfortunately never goes out of fashion.
Explosive, subversive, wild and funny, 50 years on the novel's strength is undiminished. Reading Joseph Heller's classic satire is nothing less than a rite of passage.
Set in the closing months of World War II, this is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. His real problem is not the enemy - it is his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. If Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the…
I use the word absurd a lot. Never has its usage been more appropriate
than for this book. A [absurd] sendup of science fiction convention filled
with [absurd] characters doing [absurd] things all across multiple [absurd]
universes that somehow all makes sense in the end, particularly since none of
it makes any sense. It’s, you guessed it, ridiculous.
This box set contains all five parts of the' trilogy of five' so you can listen to the complete tales of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Bebblebrox and Marvin the Paranoid Android! Travel through space, time and parallel universes with the only guide you'll ever need, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Read by Stephen Fry, actor, director, author and popular audiobook reader, and Martin Freeman, who played Arthur Dent in film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He is well known as Tim in The Office.
The set also includes a bonus DVD Life, the Universe and…
The Sellout is a satirical treatise on the lengths humans will go to reject, deny, or literally erase, injustice. It skewers any pretense of a post-racial America, telling the story of a small town in California that brings back segregation and slavery. The outlandish uproar that ensues reveals the deep division that persists in America and the discomfort in addressing it.
'Outrageous, hilarious and profound.' Simon Schama, Financial Times
'The longer you stare at Beatty's pages, the smarter you'll get.' Guardian
'The most badass first 100 pages of an American novel I've read.' New York Times
A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game.
Born in Dickens on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles, the narrator of The Sellout spent his childhood as the subject in his father's racially charged…
Intellectuals are dumb. Particularly when they are navigating their own
insecurity and ambition. Told through a series of ill-advised and awkwardly personal
letters to various scholastic and literary entities, this book shines a comic
light on the world of petty, festering academic grievance.
Finally a novel that puts the "pissed" back into "epistolary."
Jason Fitger is a beleaguered professor of creative writing and literature at Payne University, a small and not very distinguished liberal arts college in the midwest. His department is facing draconian cuts and squalid quarters, while one floor above them the Economics Department is getting lavishly remodeled offices. His once-promising writing career is in the doldrums, as is his romantic life, in part as the result of his unwise use of his private affairs for his novels. His star (he thinks) student can't catch a break with his brilliant (he…
Award-winning
novelist and cultural critic Strobe Witherspoon interrogates his own
profession. It goes terribly. Strobe
Witherspoon just sold his latest satirical novel for a lot of money. The book
in question, FLOTUS: A Memoir, is a fictitious autobiography about
a former first lady of the United States reflecting on years of misery at the
hands of her much older POTUS husband. When a chapter is leaked in advance of
the book's publication, an Online Outrage Fiesta (OOF) ensues via news outlets,
blogs, Twitter, troll farms, and everything in between. Witherspoon has his
life placed under a microscope. Family secrets are exposed. Now, an anthology
has been put together to document Witherspoon’s downfall—and settle the score.
OOF explores the
role of satire in a society lurching from one ridiculous crisis to the next,
where media outlets rely on clicks to stay alive and everything is filtered
through a lens of anger and misinformation.
I’m an OB/GYN, passionate about adventuring beyond what’s expected. This has led me to pivot multiple times in my career, now focusing on writing. I’ve written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, to elevate women’s stories. I cherish the curiosity that drives outer and inner exploration, and I love memoirs that skillfully weave the two. The books on this list feature extraordinary women who took risks, left comfort and safety, and battled vulnerability to step into the unknown. These authors moved beyond the stories they’d believed about themselves–or that others told about them. They invite you to think about living fuller and bigger lives.
Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.
The team attempts a new route up the East Face without the use of supplemental oxygen, Sherpa support, or chance for rescue. When three climbers disappear during their summit attempt, Zieman reaches the knife edge of her limits and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.
The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…
