Best Book of 2007--By Far | Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations

Pretty funny, and QUICK read | Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations | Simon Rich

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	• Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations Simon Rich Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2007 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 27 reviews view larger image
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"I'm not trying to get negative, I'm just...(Sighs)"

That pretty much sums up this snarky, cynical and humorous collection of speculations and observations from Simon Rich. It's a collection that presents a more youthful, upbeat resignation echoing the more reposed one found in the writing of David Sedaris. Ant Farm is full of nostalgic recollections and weird possibilities concerning the irrelevancies of those desperate situations that give us awkward moments of reflection.

Moments that involve realizing the agony spent before receiving one's first calculator, the ironic closed-mindedness when experimenting with a ouija board, making candy with a forgetful someone named Peanut Al, keeping close tabs on your daily karma tally, God's overwhelming support for Orel Hershiser, and the three things you really don't need if stranded on a desert island.

Ant Farm is an incredibly fast and funny read. The selections are brief and varied, maybe a little too much so, as each consists no more than a couple of pages and is unbounded by coherent theme other than pure whimsy. But it does create that weird momentary pause, raising the question whether there is anything more absurd than us humans and our behavior.

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Best Book of 2007--By Far

What an original, fresh, smart voice! Simon Rich's very short stories made me laugh out loud and buy many copies for friends and relatives of varied ages and tastes. The stories have such original premises dealing with heaven, hockey players, nerdy bears, soldiers.... I think the best are the stories about adolescent boys--their rage, awkwardness, resistance to deodorant. I hope the author has a wonderful, long career. Happy to read he works for Saturday Night Live now--I hope it doesn't wreck him! The writing is spare and clear--very well crafted. This reads super quickly.

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Pretty funny, and QUICK read

Just a bunch of funny, short stories and/or observations. I think my favorite had to be the ones about math & calculators :o) Those couple of stories made the WHOLE book worth it! It gets a little slow near the end, but it's good, short read.

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fun on the run

Perfect little book if you are in a hurry and enjoy laughing out loud. Drinking chocolate milk while reading guarantees a mess.

If you don't laugh at the very first 2 pages, you need to check your pulse.

This is, hands down, the funniest book I have ever read. It's a collection of very short essays, each of which is funnier than the next one. If you don't laugh out loud many times while you are reading just the first essay, check your pulse; you may not actually be alive. It will take you about 3 hours to read it, but it's not one of those books that means nothing because it's so slight - the absolute joy of reading something this funny is an experience for which you will want to thank this author. I think this guy just won a Thurber Prize for humor btw

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In Ant Farm, former Harvard Lampoon president Simon Rich finds humor in some very surprising places. Armed with a sharp eye for the absurd and an overwhelming sense of doom, Rich explores the ridiculousness of our everyday lives. The world, he concludes, is a hopelessly terrifying place?with endless comic potential.

?If your girlfriend gives you some ?love coupons? and then breaks up with you, are the coupons still valid?

?What kind of performance pressure does an endangered male panda feel when his captors bring the last remaining female panda to his cage?

?If murderers can get into heaven by accepting Jesus, just how awkward is it when they run into their victims?

Join Simon Rich as he explores the extraordinary and hilarious desperation that resides in ordinary life, from cradle to grave.

"Hilarious." ?Jon Stewart

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