Let Nothing You Dismay

AND THE STORY LINE IS A RIOT.

Mark O'Donnell is one of the funniest writers that I have read. I am buying his gift for a Christmas gift, but it is really a book for all seasons.

Christmas is less than a week away, but for Tad Leary there is little to celebrate. He has just lost his job as the storyteller at a Manhattan elementary school. He is about to be tossed out of the apartment he is subletting. His thesis on folklore is past due and going nowhere. Worse yet, even though he is over thirty, all his friend, family, and associates treat him as if he is a child due to his short frame and boyish appearance.In spite of his trouble's Tad has vowed to make this Christmas different. He plans to make the rounds by going to the seven parties he has been to attend. He hopes to land a job and a room for his marathon efforts and enjoy the season.LET NOTH-ING YOU DIS-MAY is a wonderfully wacky seasonal tale that will bring joy to anyone who reads the novel. Tad is a great character, struggling with his recent set-backs, his sexual preference, and his treatment by one and all. Mark O'Donnell is a gifted humorist, who brings the likes of Thurber into the late nineties as Tad is the urban, poor man's Walter Mitty (without the dreams of grandeur). Like his previous novel, GETTING OVER HOMER, Mr. O'Donnell gifts his audience with a non-stop jocular story that demonstrates even when it is too dark for Green Lantern's ring, there remains the light of comedy to pull one through the night.Harriet Klausner

Mark O'Donnell is kind of a hit-or-miss proposition. He can be--and often is--brilliantly hilarious, but he can also make your skin crawl. Fortunately, in 'Let Nothing You Dismay', there's more of the former than the latter. His puns and tropes keep coming, but there's less of the soppy emotionalism that ruined 'Homer' for me. This one kept me interested and entertained from beginning to end.Also highly recommended are O'Donnell's earlier works, including 'Vertigo Park' and 'Elementary Education', as an introduction to this awesomely clever writer.