Meaning of Life

  The fiction that makes us laugh the most is, paradoxically, often the most profound and intelligent, argues John Self. So why isn’t it being rewarded? Source  After reading this year’s Booker Prize shortlist I needed a lie down, and maybe a drink. The prize has such a reputation for rewarding books considered “depressing” that even the chair of the judges in 2015 called that year’s shortlist “pretty grim”. But 2020 must hold some kind of unwelcome record, with every single shortlisted title built on gloomy foundations: pick three from alcoholism, child neglect, environmental collapse, war, racism and structural failure, and you’ve got yourself a winner. (Enjoy!) More like this: -         Is failure the new literary success? -         The who wrote perfect sentences -         The best comic novel ever written? Perhaps the judges are right, and readers want joylessness, not jokes, from their literary prize winners. If so, they’re not alone. Comedy in fiction, especially in the sort of