She-Crab Soup by Dawn Langley Simmons was the second book I read to see if I might be a match with the publishing company that is interested in humorous novels. Sadly, the answer is probably no, but I did find
She-Crab Soup far more interesting than
Biting the Wall. The style of humor though is not one that appeals to me. There's a bunch of plays (one title I remember is
Daddy's Dying, Who's Got the Will?) that are filled with broad humor, slutty women, and redneck men.
She-Crab Soup is a novel version of that type of play. I did, however, notice details.
Details:
1) As in
Biting the Wall, many names in
She-Crab Soup are meant to be funny, specifically: Big Shot Calhoun, Mr. Pee Pincklea, Big Shot's Daddy (the only name he's ever given), Miss Ruby (a poodle), Miss Potty (madam in the local whorehouse), Miss Minnehaha Wragg, cousin Hebzibah, Miss Glory-Be (a man), Miss Topsey Piddleton, Mr. Burkee-Snout (a hound dog), Miss Lucy ("the mule, to whom he [Mr. Pee] awarded the family medal for devotion, service and endurance…" [page 205]), and so on. Guess the publisher really likes this gimmick. Sigh.
2) Humor example: "… interjected Cousin Lewis, whose chin was being tickled with a celery stick by Cousin Alexis."
… "Cousin Alexis stuck a celery stick in each of Cousin Lewis's baby pink nostrils to shut him up." (page 103) Amuses me about as much as fart jokes do.
3) The author makes stabs at humor through description. "Mr. Pee lay groaning on my Charleston Chippendale four-poster rice bed, wearing his white boxer shorts with a tiny red valentine hearts embroidered in each corner." (page 124) Still, I'm left wondering: do boxer shorts have corners?
4) During a scene at the local brothel: "At that moment a gentleman dashed out into the room and across to the front entrance, clad only in is azure-blue underdrawers. He was pursued by a large plump female in a daffodil-yellow nightgown who was screaming to be tickled." (page 163) I was amused, but only after I stopped being annoyed at the misplaced modifier. Was the front entrance really wearing underclothes?
Words:
1) Agave. "…a large feathery agave or century plant…" (page 11) I figure it's some sort of plant, and I'm not particularly interested. But since I've become fixated on checking out words I don't know, here goes.
www.dictionary.com says: "any of numerous American plants belonging to the genus Agave, of the agave family, species of which are cultivated for economic or ornamental purposes …" BTW, whatever happened to not using the word you are defining as part of the definition of the word? Just wondering.
2) Voluntary. "… for we suddenly heard what sounded like a trumpet voluntary played on a motor horn…" (page 89) I assume it's a music term. "A piece of music, frequently spontaneous and improvised, performed as a prelude to a larger work, especially a piece of organ music performed before, during, or after an office of the church." I'm beginning to realize my music vocabulary is quite limited.
3) Epergne. "I asked Miss Glory-Be to bring out the Venetian glass epergne as a centerpiece for the dining table." (page 100) Apparently, as with plants, I have a limited vocabulary in china, especially the good stuff designed to be used for entertaining. " … an ornamental piece for the center of a table, for holding fruit, flowers, etc."
Déjà vu! I've looked this one up before for another review. So much for retaining the meanings of the words I look up.
4) Doxies. "Will your doxies never leave me in peace?" (page 161) "… an immoral woman; prostitute." Ah, yet another label.
Conclusions:
1) While I'll probably never submit to this publisher again, I did learn something valuable. Humor can be achieved by whom you pick as your point-of-view character. That might come in handy for a novel that I've had simmering on the back burner for quite some time.
2) I wasn't raised as a highfalutin southerner, a fact which I think explains the words in
She-Crab Soup that I didn't know.
3) My humor differs vastly from that of this publisher.
