Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Five top humorous yet weighty novels

Sam Lipsyte is the author of Venus Drive, The Subject Steve, Home Land, and The Ask, the latter two New York Times Notable Books. He won the first annual Believer Book Award and was a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow. Lipsyte's new book is The Fun Parts, a collection of stories.

One of his five favorite humorous yet weighty novels, as told to The Daily Beast:
Sabbath’s Theater
by Philip Roth

This is one of Roth’s best, and master of puppets Mickey Sabbath is a beautiful outrage. You will never feel the same way again about art, death, love, and sniffing your friend’s daughter’s underwear.
Read about the other books on the list.

Sabbath's Theater is among Ben Schrank's top six books on love, betrayal, and creative people who behave badly, Edward Docx's top ten deranged characters, and Howard Jacobson's five best novels on failure.

--Marshal Zeringue