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The Material
The Material: A Novel | Camille Bordas
4 posts | 2 read | 6 to read
A single momentous day transforms the lives of students and professors at a school for stand-up comedy in a novel that elucidates the irreconcilability of learning and living, of performance and being (Rachel Cusk) Can comedy be taught? Someone, at some point, seemed to think so. The Chicago Stand-Up MFA program has enrolled young comedians for nearly a decade. Its teachers and students all know how bits workin theory, at least. They know that theres a line between sharp and cruel, that sad becomes funny at the right angle, that the worst is the best, the truth is the worst, and any moment of your life that isnt a punch line will either get you to a punch line or force you to be one. Theyre all afraid to be one. Artie may be too handsome for standup, Olivia too reluctant to examine her own life, and Phil too afraid to cause harm. Kruger may be too vanilla to command his students respect, Ashbee too detached. And then we have Dorothythe only woman on the programs facultywho though preparing to launch a comeback tour cant tell if shes too abiding, too ambitious, or too ambivalent. Whether a visiting professorthe high-profile, controversy-steeped comedian Manny Reinhardtwill do more to help or harm their cause remains to be seen. But hes on his way. Hell be arriving sooner than anyone thinks. Riffing keenly across a diverse array of precision-cut perspectives, The Material examines life through the eyes of a reluctantly assembled ensemble, a band of outsiders bound together by the need to laugh and the longing to make others laugh even harder.
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review
Hooked_on_books
The Material: A Novel | Camille Bordas
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Panpan

This book centering a comedy MFA program had a dynamite first chapter, looking like it‘s going to skewer academia and take on topical issues. But then it falls flat on its face with bad pacing, exploration of boring characters, and no apparent point. There are some funny lines scattered through, but I wanted to do anything else but read this. #TOBlonglist

squirrelbrain Oh dear! I bought a used copy of this, based on average reviews, but now I *really* don‘t want to read it. 😬 4d
keithmalek That's disappointing to read, because I love anything having to do with stand-up comedy, and I've been looking forward to this one. I hope I disagree. 4d
Hooked_on_books @squirrelbrain I‘ll be interested to hear what you think if you give it a try! 4d
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Hooked_on_books @keithmalek I hope you disagree, too! 4d
Megabooks 100% agree! I bailed midway through. Glad I used a Spotify borrow for it. 3d
Anna40 Great Review! 3d
Hooked_on_books @Megabooks I‘m not surprised and glad it‘s not just me! You definitely didn‘t miss anything in the second half. 😂 3d
46 likes7 comments
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charl08
The Material: A Novel | Camille Bordas
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He hadn't mentioned the postmortem oblivion, though. He assumed they knew about that, how comedians almost never reached posterity, how quickly the material aged, and the delivery, how a comedian dead twenty years might as well have lived in the Middle Ages, might as well have been one of those court jesters about whom the only thing we remembered was the funny hats.

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charl08
The Material: A Novel | Camille Bordas
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"Vague isn't necessarily bad,' he said. 'It mirrors the human experience.'

How was this guy allowed to teach English? Dorothy wondered.....

'Good writing is supposed to transcend human experience,' she said, 'not just mirror it. Otherwise, all I would have to do for critics to call my next show a masterpiece would be to write an hour's worth of random words, and I would get blurbs like "Astounding! Just like life! Makes no sense at all!"

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monalyisha
The Material: A Novel | Camille Bordas
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Nominations for #CampLitsy24 are as follows:

•The Material by Camille Bordas (tagged)
•Followed by the Lark by Helen Humphreys (👇🏻)
•Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (👇🏻)
•Get the Picture by Bianca Boskek (👇🏻)

My first choice is tagged in the header of this post. The following three are tagged in the comments below. I went with two fic & two nonfic - hopefully neither too heavy nor too light.

Exciting! 🥳🏕️📚

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TheKidUpstairs I almost put Bite by Bite on my list, too! And I'm really excited for the Humphreys, a former coworker of mine just read it and said it's her best to date! 9mo
monalyisha @TheKidUpstairs I almost waited for other people to post first so that they‘d hopefully nominate some of my choices so I didn‘t have to. 😅🙈 But I just went for it. 😉 9mo
squirrelbrain Four books I‘ve not even heard of…I love #camplitsy24 for this exact reason, even though it‘s so bad for my TBR! 9mo
BarbaraBB You couldn‘t resist nominating 😀😉? Glad you did, for the reasons @squirrelbrain mentions. All seem good to be honest 🤦🏻‍♀️ 9mo
monalyisha @BarbaraBB I‘ve got no self-control! And it‘s a wonderful event. 🌞 9mo
TrishB A new Humphreys 😱 9mo
Megabooks I have almost checked out Get the Picture twice! Thanks for nominating it. 9mo
monalyisha @Megabooks It‘s possible I have it checked out *right now.* 😅 Gonna have to return it & save it, just in case. 9mo
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