Extravaganza: A Joke Book

by Gordon Lish

The lives of two vaudeville comedians, Smith and Dale, are followed through their career, in a story told as a series of vaudeville vignettes

Genres: Novels

190 pages, Paperback

First published March 27, 1989

About the author

Gordon Jay Lish is an American writer. As a literary editor, he championed many American authors, particularly Raymond Carver, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, and Richard Ford.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wambling leewards across the Lish biblio, it is harder to avoid the conclusion that all Lish books are “joke books”, shot through with wild comedic non sequiturs and maddening childish tangents. This one consists of a stream of dialogues between two vaudeville comedians who speak in the tongue-twisting repetitious mode of a Lish narrator. Some of the fragments have punchlines, most of them spin off into non sequiturs, take surreal and unexpected tangents or come to baffling random conclusions. Like a series of improvised sketches from two performers at an open mic night, the results range from wildly funny to fist-clenchingly annoying, inconsequential, or wilfully odd. I was on board for the whole insane experience, and once again commend Lish for his ballsiness in writing some of the strangest and funniest fiction in the American canon in whatever form takes his fancy.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read about 20 percent of the book only to get a taste of it to write a catalog listing. A strange experiment in fiction presented as a vaudeville script. I'm not sure what the deeper message might be but perhaps something about Jewish survivors' guilt or self-loathing after the Holocaust. Imagine Martin Luther King talking about race issues through the medium of a minstrel show. Something like that.

[Reynard Seifert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are you the doctor?

What the fuck are you talking about, dickhead?

This book will punch you in the face if you don't watch your face. Keep a mirror around; use it often.

But I have to say that the idea this is a comedy is somewhat misleading; I don't think it is. Seems like an experiment in monotony.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

May 2015: Re-reading.

May 5th: A very bizarre book, one which I enjoyed but would hesitate to recommend. When it came out (1989), the NY Times review said, "Jokes may abound in ''Extravaganza,'' but Mr. Lish makes sure that existential despair keeps whistling through the cracks." Kirkus Review hated it ("appalling work of fiction").

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointment to me after all the other great Lish reads. Bad jokes are called bad jokes for a reason.

[David Sterritt]

I have a genuine soft spot for Gordon Lish, one of the most radical and obsessive writers this side of Beckett and Joyce, who are obviously superior but tread some similar ground. Nothing by Lish is more radical and obsessive than his 1997 novel “Extravaganza,” which I’ve just read again. This time around it’s as grating, repetitious, and compulsive as ever, but its obnoxious quality is a key part of its point. No work of fiction I can think of more acerbically addresses the aggression, hostility, and deadliness that lurks within comedy, humor, and wit, which Lish exposes with his own kind of ferocious glee. I still think “Peru” is his best work, but this one has its own dank little place in my heart. Highly recommended for those who can take it.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/4 stars

[Daniel Tyler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confounding. Two men tell jokes with conventional setup-punchline structure, then retell the jokes ad nauseam with increasingly menial detail. Every now and then they will break out into Anti-Semitic rants, especially when a joke involves trains. Perhaps this is some commentary on the American Jewish experience and comedy/joke-telling after the Holocaust? An interesting read, very trying at times. I did not understand it!!

[Morgan]

I don't know how I feel about this book. I'm gay.

[Michelle Williams · Rating 1 out of 5]

Required reading for an English lit class, but despite that I couldn't even finish it ... and I rarely leave a book unfinished.