When you know you're killing 'em: They Laughed at Me by David Kempf (review)

Comedian Jack Lively is skillfully managing his temptations while under house arrest, but starting with his anonymous confrontations on the local Open Mic Night, he's laughing his way over the edge. I posted about David Kempf's They Laughed at Me over on GoodReads. It was interesting to take some concepts i've been mulling over and see how they are refracted in this funny, titilating, and oft times, harrowing novel. I was pleased my observations immediately after finishing apparently made the author's day. You always hope people will read your book. It's great they should buy it, but it is something to know they read it. When you learn WHAT it made them think of, your art becomes a third creation: the one in the reader's head comes out to play. What comes out of Jack's head to play is intriguing. I comment on his moral center in the review, but you might ask yourself a few questions about why you both want to see the character come to his senses and not throw away his life, and why you want to see how far he'll go! It's precisely the sort of morality tale designed to say, "I see your unacceptable urges sitting there, too. How do you come to terms with your own shadow side?"

My brief review is posted on GoodReads, but here's your two-minute take. And if your interest is picqued, grab a copy yourself on Amazon! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3900946079?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1&fbclid=IwAR3AoqFsPgo1Krcd1H_AUK8-nYUUyiuWXhEoKpz0ucyIhxm0FPfpPO6CqA4&error_code=4201&error_message=User%20canceled%20the%20Dialog%20flow#_=_ Comedian Jack Lively is skillfully managing his temptations while under house arrest, but starting with his anonymous confrontations on the local Open Mic Night, he's laughing his way over the edge. We were at a pretty dark point in our self-imposed lockdown when I started reading this very realistic novel, about a desperate man on house arrest taking up a secret identity as a schlock/shock comic. The descriptions of the club scenes, and observations of the comic/ crowd dynamic, remain vivid thoroughout. Just in case you begin to wonder where does this main character, Jack Lively, find his moral center, you realize, for his control and will regarding his addiction problems, he is nonetheless bound for the edge. There's a combination of self-awareness and fatalism regarding his own flaws. We are, most of us, all-too-keenly aware of our short comings, and Jack's quite honest with the reader about his. Maybe we emphasize them out of proportion. Jack's horrible wife, Emily, has done this to Jack, to the point of quite nearly destroying his sanity- which she will probably regret. There's actually a lot of sexually-charged frustration, apparently liberated by wonder escort, Riley. But you see the things Jack hides from himself. One of his redeeming qualities, that makes him readable, is how observant he is of what others hide from themselves.