Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's, Humor Category

by Dave Eggers, Kevin Shay, Suzanne Kleid, et al.

Book Overview

A hilarious collection from McSweeney's that "achieves the sensation of being hit by a hip, humorous train.... Breaks mold after mold in hilarious fashion" (The New York Times).Now more than ever,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400042240
• ISBN13: 9781400042241
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Cran-Pepper Hen Loaf, Spiced Saucetail, And Fleen

Overall this is an excellent book, with only a few disappointments, which are inevitable in a compendium of this nature. My favorite part of the book is at the end, and consists of humorous lists (my title comes from a list by Steven Tomsik, "Eleven Lunch Meats I Have Invented") of all varieties. McSweeney's is always a mixed bag, and this volume is no exception. Most of the material is very good, yet there are some articles that are weak or overly lengthy ("Journal of a New COBRA Recruit" and "Unused Audio Commentary by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, Recorded Summer 2002, for 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring DVD (Platinum Series Extended Edition), Part One'" come to mind here, respectively). Despite these exceptions, the majority of the pieces are very clever and entertaining. Especially noteworthy are "How Important Moments in my Life Would Have Been Different if I Was Shot Twice in the Stomach", "Fire: The Next Sharp Stick?", and "A Letter From Ezra Pound to Billy Wilder, 1963", to name but a few. This book isn't for everyone, but people who are inclined to academic humor or clever wordplay will love it. I highly recommend this book. Perhaps you can enjoy it over a brumschlagen sandwich.

Modernize your Bathroom

Great piecemeal read. Not meant for anything but a bit at a time. McSweeney recycles and I for one am quite happy about it. Comfortably nestled in between an old tattered Mad "Worst of" and a classic "Buy this magazine or we'll shoot this dog" 70's Nat. Lampoon cover, this is unquestionably superior bathroom fare. Everything is short, simple, intelligent stupidity that will either get you to laugh or induce peristalsis. Either way you win. Treasure like this doesn't come along all that often. Only complaint is they left out one my favorite McSweeny's bits of nonsense, The Rollercoaster Ride, which years ago I gave away to some Swiss girl on a beach in the South Pacific. Kinda worth it. I know its just plain stupid. But its just plain 'I wish I had thought of that and gotten published with it' stupid. Like I said, intelligent stupidity, often absurd, and it has a great C. Burns cover. Genius.

unparalleled toilet reading

I have a laptop with a wireless connection, yes, but taking it into the bathroom with me earns me creeped-out looks from my prude roommmate. So for the last years I've been reading the silly tidbits of McSweeney's.net respectably at my desk, and limiting my toilet reading to dull fare like Johann Aloys Schlosser's biography of Beethoven. Until at last "Created in Darkness..." came to the rescue. I can now read McSweeney's' great humor wherever I want to. The pieces in the book are reprints of stuff from the web site, all mostly very short and ideally suited for bathroom perusal. (McSweeney's has a sort of very-clever, distinctive kind of humorous but not sidesplitting writing that appeals to me terrifically. Check out mcsweeneys.net and see if you like that. If you do you will like this book. If not, consider buying it as a gift for a friend.) So yeah, problem solved. My roommate loves the book too so I don't even have to explain to him why I am laughing in the bathroom.