One More Thing

November 25, 2013
Novak’s debut contains a buckshot 64 fun and funny short stories crammed into a single volume. Part Etgar Keret, part McSweeney’s, these tidy tales from the alum of TV’s The Office depart from the “how I became famous” comedian’s biography for a decidedly more literary turn. The collection’s opening story, “The Rematch,” is a clever sequel to a classic in which the hare pressures the tortoise into a rematch in an attempt to get past the most shameful defeat of his life. In another standout, “Sophia,” a young man custom-orders a sex doll, but is disappointed when he discovers that it possesses artificial intelligence (the first of its kind) and the capacity to feel love. The bulk of Novak’s stories are comedic, and more than a few are surprisingly tender. “A Good Problem to Have” features a confused senior citizen pushing into an elementary school classroom to explain how he invented the two-trains-leave-the-station math problem but never got credit for it. If the collection feels uneven at times, like a series of playful asides (a handful of the entries don’t reach beyond a few slight lines), perhaps that’s because Novak seems to have worked harder on the more substantial stories, which have the pleasing feel of being written by an author in complete control of his craft. First printing of 150,000 announced. Agent: Richard Abate, 3 Arts Entertainment.

January 15, 2014
A debut collection of stories, ranging from two or three sentences to 18 or so pages, from Novak, best known for his work on The Office. Given the sheer number of entries in this collection, it's not surprising that Novak has both hits and misses. Among the latter are a few sketches that read like stand-up material, occasionally witty but also occasionally falling flat. Some ideas work better in conception than in execution--"Walking on Eggshells (or: When I Loved Tony Robbins)," for example, in which the narrator is blunt about wanting to have sex with the eponymous motivational speaker, or "The Ghost of Mark Twain," in which a teacher objects to the language in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and hopes to see a new edition increasing the number of times Huck uses the "N-word." At other times, however, Novak is spot-on and frequently hilarious. In "The World's Biggest Ripoff," the narrator and his family visit the Baseball Hall of Fame, Niagara Falls and the Guinness World Records Museum and find all of them wanting. The narrator then visits an "incredibly well-executed interactive holographic exhibit on the Bernie Madoff hedge fund scam of 2009" and finds the $100 entrance fee (per person) well spent. The last piece in the collection, "J. C. Audetat, Translator of Don Quixote," is also the longest, so Novak has more space in which to develop his comic ideas. A translator becomes famous translating not only Miguel de Cervantes, but also Leo Tolstoy and Marcel Proust--and his final work is a new translation of The Great Gatsby into "modern" English. Novak creates a spectrum of work from the mediocre to the deliciously tongue-in-cheek. If you don't like something, just wait--a new piece is usually only a page or two away.

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Starred review from January 1, 2014
Novak's high-concept, hilarious, and disarmingly commiserative fiction debut stems from his stand-up performances and his Emmy Awardwinning work on the comedy series, The Office, as writer, actor, director, and executive producer. Accordingly, his more concise stories come across as brainy comedy bits, while his sustained tales covertly encompass deep emotional and psychological dimensions. An adept zeitgeist miner, Novak excels at topsy-turvy improvisations on a dizzying array of subjects, from Aesop's fables to tabloid Elvis to our oracular enthrallment to the stock market. A master of cringe, Novak imagines a blind date with a warlord, a Comedy Central TV roast of Nelson Mandela, and a mortifying misunderstanding between mega-best-selling novelist John Grisham and his new editor. Writing with zing and humor in the spirit of Woody Allen and Steve Martin, Novak also ventures into the realm of George Saunders and David Foster Wallace. A boy wins a breakfast-cereal contest and discovers a shocking family secret. A sex robot falls in love. A man reveals the heartbreak behind the universally dreaded math problem about the two trains leaving the stations at different times. Baseline clever and fresh, at best spectacularly perceptive, and always commanding, Novak's ingeniously ambushing stories of longing, fear, pretension, and confusion reveal the quintessential absurdities and transcendent beauty of our catch-as-catch-can lives. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Novak's television fame is an instant lure, one that will be pitched far and wide as Novak appears on major talk shows and travels to 20 cities in concert with an immense print and online ad campaign.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

September 15, 2013

He's been seen on The Office, won a Screen Actors Award for Inglourious Basterds, and will appear shortly in Saving Mr. Banks with Tom Hanks. But Novak also aspires to write, and his publisher compares him to George Saunders. Terse, Woody Allen-esque takes on the absurdities of modern life; with a 150,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2014

What if real-life investigative reporter Chris Hansen (To Catch a Predator) went to a Justin Bieber concert? What if Nelson Mandela were the subject of a celebrity roast on Comedy Central? What if robots learn to love but their owners just want to keep it casual? What if the tortoise and the hare had a rematch? Writer and actor Novak (The Office; Inglourious Basterds) answers all these questions and more in his funny, engaging debut collection. Selections range from snippets of conversation to one-page modern fables to more fully realized selections, such as the touching "One of These Days." Novak is at his most adroit when examining the impact of mobile devices and social networking on our lives. We place plaintive and rambling "Missed Connections" ads when one-night stands go wrong and demand extreme forms of "Closure" when longer relationships fail. VERDICT Novak is a fresh, welcome voice in humor with wide-ranging potential. Die-hard Office fans may be attracted because of his connection, but contemporary humor aficionados and fans of David Sedaris, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, and Mindy Kaling, Novak's costar and friend, are most likely to pick this one up and should enjoy it. [See Prepub Alert, 8/26/13.]--Jennifer B. Stidham, Houston Community Coll. Northeast

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 28, 2014
Novak’s quirky, humorous short stories translate well to audio. And the author’s dry, deadpan reading—as if all the book’s odd happenings are perfectly normal—makes this audio edition even funnier. The guest narrators perform admirably, with Schwartzman turning in a truly hilarious cameo as a bloodthirsty African warlord on a blind date with a giggly American woman. As the warlord makes small talk with his date, Schwartzman’s jovial, booming voice shifts seamlessly from describing his job of murder, rape, and destruction to a Seinfeldian rant about flourless chocolate cake. Fans of offbeat humor with unexpected punch lines in the vein of Jack Handey’s “Deep Thoughts” will enjoy this amusing and often insightful potpourri. A Knopf hardcover.