Laughter or just a wee chuckle?

Hmmm can laugh out loud funny moments really occur in more highbrow literature? Dickens has some comic moments, I guess. Hardy, no, I recall mostly misery...D.H. Lawrence, nope, I don't recall laughing. Elizabeth von Arnim has made me chuckle in The Enchanted April, Vita Sackville-West also, Graham Greene, ... But have I actually laughed out loud, in the way I laugh when I watch a South Park episode? Probably not that often. However, TheManWhoFellAsleep's book did make me laugh out loud.

Personally I think there's a place for all kinds of literature. I don't think reviewers and critics decry books simply because they are highbrow. They might give bad reviews to dull books just as much as poorly written... This seems to hark back to a previous discussion we've had about well-written vs entertaining books. Sometimes a book is both. Sometimes it isn't. I sometimes like to read something I can get through in 2 days, with a great story and characters that pull me in. Sometimes I want to tackle something more highbrow. Hardy remains unread since my teenage years, '1984' just got re-read with gusto...

By the way I do agree with you about Big Brother, it's a pile of poo with extra poo on top. And David Baddiel probably gets paid way too much for his opinions. And Zadie Smith, well, shite sorry White Teeth made me yawn not laugh. So I haven't bothered with any of her other books since.

My most entertaining book of the summer was 'The Final Confession of Mabel Stark' by Robert Hough, all about the life of a circus tiger trainer.