The Republic of Love by Carol Shields, The Hearts and Lives of Men by Fay Weldon, Charming Billy by Alice McDermott, Nine Stories by J.D. Or, as one audience member pointed out to me-it's a laugh over something familiar, something close to the bone, a nervous laugh, and that is the definition of a comedy of manners. Somewhere along the line I realized that what I find to be poignant or quirky or worth noting, other people find funny. And next time I head out for a reading, I choose what will get laughs, even if I don't quite see what's so funny. It always surprises me when I'm reading aloud at a bookstore what the audience laughs at-but I love when they do that. If I find myself ever reaching for a laugh, I cut that line. I just write what I want to report, or maybe what I find to be poignant, and later discover that a particular line I meant to be wry, readers find to be funny. Is it difficult to write comedic situations? It isn't for me. Wodehouse and even Larry David, both brilliant in comedy. Before that, I did journalism of varying unglamorous sorts, such as managing editor for The Massachusetts Teacher. (yes, "poem." Not a typo.) Still, I didn't take my first fiction writing class until I was 28.
I told my mother when I was little that I wanted to grow up to be a famous poem.
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