Word: humorous
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Just as the power of Flaubert's original novel comes from the author's almost clinically objectivist approach, the humor of "Gemma" springs from Simmonds' dead-on observation. Thanks to the use of Gemma's diaries as part of the narrative, "Gemma Bovery" often feels like a caustic and richly deserved counterpoint to the irritating Bridget Jones franchise. Imagine Bridget on amphetamines and you have a fair idea of Gemma Bovery. The characterizations of Gemma as a rudderless yuppie, Charlie as the befuddled schlub, various French and English twits and even Joubert, the largely sympathetic baker/narrator are all razor sharp...
...Social satires tend to be pretty crude affairs in the world of comix. Cartoonists tend to succumb to the genre's temptations of broad, easy caricature. Posy Simmonds avoids this with her particularly English dry wit. Rich with memorable characters, literary depth, cutting humor and pictorial panache, "Gemma Bovery" sets a new standard for intelligent cartoon satire in graphic novel format...
...When it comes to manner, alas, Miss Sontag can be as exasperatingly pretentious as anyone in the not overly humble world of cultural punditry. Her work abounds in self-contradictions. She is a girl almost without a sense of humor; yet she made her reputation with an article on the high frivolity of 'camp.' She is a part-time novelist [who writes] ... like a grim translation from the German: 'By literary genre,' she observes, 'I mean a body of work belonging to literature considered as an art and to which inherent standards of artistic excellence pertain.' She is the kind...
...novel series Le Chat du Rabbin (The Rabbi's Cat), which explores the life of an old rabbi and his daughter in an Algerian town that is home to both Jews and Muslims--all through the eyes of his irreverent, scrawny cat. "What I wanted to do is use humor and irony to explore the daily lives of religious folk," says Sfar, "which is a change from the rather militant antireligion sentiment in France today." An English translation is due in the U.S. in August...
...enigma even to close associates. He was zealously private and distant to most, always approachable, rarely approached. Carson was in danger last week of posthumous teddy-bearization, with eulogists praising him as "calm" and "gentle." That wasn't even true of his TV persona--he laced his humor with sarcasm and sexual danger, and he batted Ed McMahon about like a piņata. In private Carson was standoffish and in his marriages admittedly no saint. His jokes about his serial monogamy endeared him to viewers, but you don't rack up three divorces by being a harmless sweetie...