Bream Gives Me Hiccups
& Other Stories
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The wildly inventive debut collection of stories by the Oscar-nominated star of The Social Network. “Hilarious . . . It’s a hoot” (People, The Best New Books).
Jesse Eisenberg, known for his iconic film roles, his regular pieces in the New Yorker and two critically acclaimed plays, proves himself “a deeply original comic voice” in these 28 stories” about the funniness, sadness, and strangeness of everyday life and they really made me laugh” (Roz Chast).
Moving from contemporary LA to the dorm rooms of an American college to ancient Pompeii, Eisenberg throws the reader into a universe of social misfits, reimagined scenes from history, and ridiculous overreactions; a college freshman forced to live with a roommate is stunned when one of her ramen packets goes missing (“She didn’t have ‘one’ of my ramens. She had a chicken ramen.”); Alexander Graham Bell has teething problems with his invention (“I’ve been calling Mabel all day, she doesn’t pick up! Yes, of course I dialed the right number—2!”); and in the title story, a precocious and privileged nine-year-old boy finds himself in the uncomfortable position as an amateur restaurant critic.
Featuring illustrations by award-winning cartoonist Jean Jillian, this “alphabet soup of sketches, riffs, and innovations” (Seattle Times) explores the various insanities of the modern world, “playfully bringing both familiar and wholly original scenarios to life” (Marie Claire).
A Fall Books Preview Selection by Audible
One of the Wall Street Journal’s 15 Books to Read This Fall
One of USA Today’s Weekend Picks for Book Lovers
One of People Magazine’s Best New Books
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The debut story collection from actor Eisenberg is a quick, witty read. The title story features the hilarious Yelp-like restaurant reviews of a sensitive nine-year-old, whose alcoholic mother drags him around to restaurants so that her ex-husband will foot the bill. The rest of the stories borrow from similar modernist tragicomic scenarios: one story is called "My Little Sister Texts Me with Her Problems"; another, "My Spam Plays Hard to Get," features a coy email from a porn star with a passion for Chaucer; and, in more old-fashioned missives, a first-year college student chronicles her roommate woes to a tolerant teacher back home, in "My Roommate Stole My Ramen: Letters from a Frustrated Freshman." Eisenberg's brand of comedy is frequently compared to Woody Allen's, and it's easy to see why the stories are populated with neuroses, highly difficult people, anxious mothers, and therapists; all seem to function in the same self-contained New York universe. Reading the stories requires a certain tolerance for (or delight in) cultural references. But they're also charming, deftly written, and laugh-out-loud funny.
