Relative Discomfort: The Family Survival Guide: The Essential Tool for Living Through and Laughing at All of Our Family Encounters

by Jeremy Greenberg

Book Overview

Seeing family is like catching a head cold: a temporary discomfort relieved by a snifter or four of brandy." --Jeremy Greenberg

Relative Discomfort is a sidesplitting, guffaw-inducing guide to living through and laughing at all of our family encounters. You know that knot you get in your stomach when you're about to come face-to-face with your Uncle Drunk and Aunt Enabler, or the brother-in-law who always wants to show you his gun collection?...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0740773763
• ISBN13: 9780740773761
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

How to Maintain Perspective

If you've ever felt the flight or fight reflex in a room full of quirky old relatives you know you're just too close to, this book will help. The age-old cure of humor to deal with problems really does still work. Picked it up based on the recommendation of a friend just prior to the in-laws coming to town for an extended stay. I'm glad I did. At night after everyone had turned in, I'd be giggling away because of how true it all was and how helpful the tips were.

Very funny and appropriate

When I first got this book, I skimmed it a little bit, and ended up laughing out loud enough that I had to read it cover to cover. Reading it after Thanksgiving was so appropriate that I'm thinking of getting it for a certain so and so for Christmas...

One of the funniest books I've read in many years

Whenever the great comedian Jeremy Greenberg has come to town, I've enjoyed his performances. He's much more articulate and inventive than the average American stand-up artist; for this reason, I've always sought out his written material. He gives the impression of being a writer who happens to be a very funny performer, rather than merely a performer who happens to write. This has all led me to his new book, Relative Discomfort. This is not the usual "contemporary comedy" book. There's not a single pedestrian paragraph or wasted sentence. Irreverent, daring, and just cocky enough to surprise the reader into genuine laughter with unexpected asides and left turns, this is one of the very few books I've ever read that have made me laugh out loud. I'm not really a "laugh out loud" guy while reading, in spite of being a lifelong book lover and comedy buff. But this book provides a very welcome exception. If you meet both of the following criteria, I highly recommend this book: 1. You are human. 2. You have family members of some kind. An excellent job. I look forward to more books by Mr. Greenberg. I hope he never stops writing. There aren't enough people out there offering such a consistently high level of originality.