Summary
The question "This Is a Book" hoped to answer was not whether comedian Demetri Martin is funny. Anyone who has ever seen his stand- up routines on the short-lived Comedy Central show "Important Things With Demetri Martin" knows Mr. Martin is easily able to bring laughs. What fans were wondering was whether this humor could translate to the written word. "This Is a Book," Mr. Martin's first foray into writing, is able to transition quite successfully while hitting only a few bumps along the way.
The book overall is precisely what Mr. Martin describes it as - a grab bag of one-liners, stories and cartoons. Mr. Martin arrives in the publishing world with ease, bringing Twitteresque quips ("4 out of 5 dentists who chew gum also have a small ponytail and an earring") and his signature cartoons along for the ride. The book alternates between short chapters, sketches and random humor in forms like poetry and lists. The happy-go-lucky nature of the book can leave the reader's head spinning, as the author abruptly switches from story to drawing to poem to story with no overlying theme or reason, but Mr. Martin manages to keep the reader entertained even with the somewhat bumpy flow.See the full content of this document
Extract
From Stand-Up to the Written Word
Mr. Martin truly shines in his two- to three-page prose pieces, which read like stand-up routines written down. He manages to poke fun at aspects of culture without seriously commen...
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