Dylan Brody

Laughs Last

** spoiler alert **
           i can't really say anything bad about this book in terms of writing style, except perhaps the non-chronological structuring was a bit confusing. the plot however? i have a lot to say about that. i feel like if you are interested in comedy, laughs last could be nice read. however, i am what they call a "civilian," and i just... don't care. i think partly this is my fault for seeking out this book when i am so indifferent to its main topic, but it is also the author's job to pull a reader in, regardless of how they feel about the subject, is it not?

i just think this book was overdramatic about a lot of things, maybe because i don't care about comedy. half the time i was reading, i was wondering if anything was as remotely as deep as damon and poppa made it out to be. i can somewhat understand them when comedy becomes damon's livelihood, but their dialogue and interactions in damon's childhood made me ask why poppa wasn't in a straightjacket, which i don't think was brody's intention. 

this scene especially was so???
"Without looking up from the food, Damon said, “You know what’s an oxymoron? Jumbo shrimp. Al- so, Military intelligence.” Poppa laughed aloud. Mom laughed a hissing little laugh. Dad looked up from the puzzle sharply and said, “That’s not yours.” “How do you know?” Damon asked. “Simon,” Poppa scolded. “You don’t accuse someone of—” but Dad cut him off. “You’re nine, Damon. Do you know what ‘oxymo- ron’ means?” “It means—um—” Damon squirmed, trying to find the meaning that would make sense of the laugh he had heard the joke get. Before he could get there, Poppa stepped in. He had never heard his grandfather sound so worried, so angry. “Is that true, Damon? Where did you get that joke?”

truly the strangest family dynamic i've ever read. a nine year old making a joke and everyone going "you stole that!! how dare you??" like who cares. perhaps i take things a bit too literally.

and when we find out that the insane oh-so-significant thing that damon did at poppa's funeral was... gluing a fake nose on him?? what. this was being pushed as a huge thing, something violently evil, or an award winning emmy skit, depending on which character you asked. apparently damon's father and brother never forgave him. over gluing a fake nose on a corpse. all this waffling over a fake nose, like i genuinely don't get it. it comes across as prank by an 8 year old—damon was supposedly a grown man at the time, but who knows, really—neither funny, nor particularly evil boundary pushing. again, my reaction was who cares? this was such an anticlimactic reveal; i was actually excited to know what he did, and he did this. like okay, i guess. i'm sorry, i just hated poppa's character—i wanted damon to actually do something horrific to him and turn it into a joke.

i think i just can't care about male characters unless reading from a female pov, or in scifi/fantasy, and unfortunately, this happens to be contemporary literary fiction. i loved the cynthia character though, and her relationship with damon was nicely written. 

2 stars. thank you to booktasters for sending me a copy.

Laughs Last

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