B.J. Novak was one of the authors I was most excited to see at the LA Times Festival of Books. For one, he was a writer/actor on one of my favorite shows, The Office. And for two, Florinda (The 3R’s Blog) told me his first collection of short stories was worth reading, even for someone like me who isn’t normally enamored with short fiction.
Florinda and I saw Novak “in conversation” with LA Times movie critic Kenneth Turan at the festival, and he described One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories as uncollected thoughts, which I think is a lovely description of this collection. The stories in One More Thing range in length from a couple of sentences to up to 20 pages, but manage to bring a consistent sense of gentle, wry and sarcastic humor.
Many of my favorite stories in the collection were pieces that took a particular concept or character and extended them to the extreme but logical conclusion: What if the hare demanded a rematch with the tortoise? How much money could you make if you had a nickle for every cup of coffee you spilled? What would a comedy roast of Nelson Mandela look like? What if you told a story about Wikipedia Brown instead of Encyclopedia Brown? They’re odd little questions, but offer some funny situations to explore.
One of the anecdotes that stuck with me from Novak’s conversation is how he edited the collection. As he was writing, he would periodically scheduled live shows in Los Angeles. He’d read potential pieces from the book at the show, editing them as he got audience feedback, keeping only the stories that the audience loved or that he was sure would work better on paper.
I had that idea in mind as I was reading and I could absolutely tell that the pieces had a performance quality to them that I really enjoyed. They each had a distinct voice that I could tell was developed carefully. And the comedy beats in each story really did land for me. If I ever have an opportunity to do a brief reading, I think I’d want to choose one of these pieces.
Finding a short story collection that really hit the spot for me personally made me excited to keep trying the genre more deliberately that I have been before. I think my next collection will be The Last Girlfriend on Earth and Other Stories by Simon Rick, but I would love to get more suggestions from you!
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This sounds like one I should pick up. I like the idea of stories which were partially founded in performance.
I liked that aspect too, especially since I could tell performance influenced the writing.
I don’t think I’ve ever read something like this collection. I love that it makes you want to read more short stories.
I am really intrigued by the BJ Novak book. Like you, I LOVED The Office. I also really loved Mindy Kaling’s book. I know his book isn’t a memoir, but a friend of Mindy’s is a friend of mine, you know?
Yes, I totally get that. I bet BK Novak would write a stellar memoir, if he ever wanted to do that.
Gah! I’ve just recently gotten into The Office, which is why I know who he is. I’m so glad this doesn’t suck because I totally want to read it. And I think you might LOVE The Last Girlfriend on Earth.
I remember you raved about that one — I’m excited to pick it up!
This sounds really good. I will add it to my library list.
I am such a geek that i didn’t even know that he was on tv until after i had heard great things about the book. Glad you enjoyed it. The Last Girlfriend is supposed to be great too.
The Office had a very particular following, and he was sort of a minor character on it. I wouldn’t be too worried about not recognizing his name 🙂
I’ve heard a lot of really great things about this collection and I’m really hoping I get around to reading it sooner than later.
I’m currently in the process of finding some short stories to teach to my students next year. I’ll let you know if any great collections come across my desk.