A hilarious and wickedly original new collection of pieces and cartoons by one of America's funniest writers.The title story (as sweeping as any novel but without the annoying length, more glamorous than a miniseries but without commercial interruption) follows a tragic (not to give anything away) love triangle (an idealistic screen goddess and her two unshakable lovers - who happen to become the last two presidents of the United States) through decades of (imaginary) American history.Here is some of what you'll find: in "Marred Bliss," the fractured puns of a love quadrangle ("Maybe you'd rather ram off with her! She's been trying to reduce you since she got here") ... in "Diary of a Fan," the diarist's deepest thoughts ("I saw Sigourney Weaver on the street today. I pity her") ... in "The Whom of Kaboom," a perilous cruise with Jack the Hipper, sculptor of the famous Venus de Mylar ... and in "A Tall Tale," a meeting with America's tallest tall-tale hero, Johnny Business, whose wealth requires three strong men just to conceive of.Gasp for air, and then browse the high school yearbook of the planets, learn about electricity from electricity itself, and discover Emily Dickinson, advertising copywriter.Perfectly qualified critics have called O'Donnell's writing "extremely amusing," "delightful ... off-the-wall, highly original," "invigorating, gifted." Vertigo Park is the latest from his wild workshop - a hands-on volume for students of laughter everywhere.

Vertigo Park/and Other Tall Tales

Humor & Entertainment

O'Donnell, Mark

Humor

St Martins Pr

In his brilliant new novel, the first since the widely enjoyed Getting Over Homer, Mark O'Donnell takes us on a wild and funny tour through the Christmas season's ultimate challenge: the day of too many parties. It's Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve in Manhattan--five days from the holiday Ground Zero--but Tad Leary, the most confused man on earth, doesn't know whether to celebrate or go crazy. He's just been fired, he's about to be evicted from his sublet, he's getting nowhere on his overdue folklore thesis, "Social Hierarchies of Imaginary Places," and on top of everything else--or rather underneath everything else--at age thirty-four (older than Christ), he's five-foot-one and still baby-faced, so he's treated like a child wherever he goes. Nonetheless, he's been invited to seven (a magic number one of his rivals is writing a thesis about) different Christmas parties that day, and he decides to explore every one of them for possible work, apartments, love, and just plain distraction. Tad's a walking punch bowl of joy and fear, goodwill and alienation, running a constant mental argument with himself throughout his long marathon. By midnight, he will have visited all parts of his past--from brunch with his rumpled Boston Irish parents and arguably more successful brothers, to dinner with his beautiful Swedish ex-girlfriend, to a fancy, colossal uptown bash where, by now dangerously looped, he bumps into an ex-boyfriend (more confusion!) looking as "glorious and golden as a roast turkey." A farcical, over-the-top feast of twisted one-liners and outrageous imagery, Let Nothing You Dismay depicts Tad's--and everyone's--struggle for survival, with a bracing combination of Darwinian theory and hallucinatory fairy-tale wonder. It's a Chekhov story told with P. G. Wodehouse flippancy, or a tale of Celtic mysticism as S. J. Perelman might have rendered it. Above all, the bright spots in this darkest night of the soul prove that comical epiphany isn't just for Christmas anymore.

Let Nothing You Dismay

Literature & Fiction

Humor & Satire

KNOPF

"Uproarious...one of the funniest writers around."--The New Yorker Tad Leary has problems. Just fired from his job at a Manhattan private school, about to be evicted from his sublet, and stalled on his dissertation ("Social Hierarchies of Imaginary Places"), he wakes up on the Sunday before Christmas to realize he has seven parties to attend. A trooper in jeans and a pressed white shirt, he sets off for brunch with his eccentric family, an afternoon performance-art piece by a friend sporting little more than a tattooed goatee, a dinner party where he runs into an ex-girlfriend, a late-night soiree where he spars with an ex-boyfriend, and more. With a charming combination of wit, wisdom--and just a little whimpering--Tad charts a survivalist's course through Manhattan's social hierarchies. "A delight.... By turns zany and meditative, satirical and mellow...a gently bittersweet comedy."--Newsday "A wise, hilarious stocking stuffer."--The Village Voice

Dramas & Plays

Vintage

A comic caper through an assortment of academic subjects from Physics and Philosophy to Music Appreciation and Business, invents outrageous theories and principles and offers offbeat advice on current trends

An Elementary Education: An Easy Alternative to Actual Learning

"Wise and forgiving . . . tough-minded and tender-hearted" (The New York Times), this delicious "coming of middle age" novel takes a lyrical, winsome, and genuinely side-splitting look at the heartbreak, aging, the search for home, and the madness of love between two mismatched men. "A stylish mix of humorous irony and realistic detail."--San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Getting Over Homer

Random House Value Publishing

A comic caper through an assortment of academic subjects from Physics and Philosophy to Music Appreciation and Business, invents outrageous theories and principles and offers offbeat advice on current trends

Elementary Education: An Easy Alternative to Actual Learning

Faber&Faber

In Hairspray, it's 1962--the fifties are out and change is in the air. Baltimore's Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, has only one passion: to dance. She wins a spot on the local TV dance program, The Corny Collins Show, and overnight is transformed from an awkward overweight outsider into an irrespressible teen celebrity. But can a trendsetter in dance and fashion vanquish the program's reigning blond princess, win the heart of heartthrob Link Larkin, and integrate a television show without denting her 'do? Only in Hairspray! Based on John Waters's 1988 film, the musical comedy Hairspray opened on Broadway in August 2002 to rave reviews. Hairspray: The Roots includes the libretto of the show--along with hilarious anecdotes from the authors, to say nothing of dance step diagrams and full-color bouffant wigs to copy and cut out--along with all the creative energy, brilliant color, and full-out emotion that have made the musical "a great big, gorgeous hit . . . [that] is a triumph on all levels" (Clive Barnes, The New York Post).

Hairspray: The Roots

Meehan, Thomas

Shaiman, Marc

Wittman, Scott

A hilarious and wickedly original new collection of pieces and cartoons by one of America's funniest writers. The title story (as sweeping as any novel but without the annoying length, more glamorous than a miniseries but without commercial interruption) follows a tragic (not to give anything away) love triangle (an idealistic screen goddess and her two unshakable lovers - who happen to become the last two presidents of the United States) through decades of (imaginary) American history. Here is some of what you'll find: in "Marred Bliss," the fractured puns of a love quadrangle ("Maybe you'd rather ram off with her! She's been trying to reduce you since she got here") ... in "Diary of a Fan," the diarist's deepest thoughts ("I saw Sigourney Weaver on the street today. I pity her") ... in "The Whom of Kaboom," a perilous cruise with Jack the Hipper, sculptor of the famous Venus de Mylar ... and in "A Tall Tale," a meeting with America's tallest tall-tale hero, Johnny Business, whose wealth requires three strong men just to conceive of. Gasp for air, and then browse the high school yearbook of the planets, learn about electricity from electricity itself, and discover Emily Dickinson, advertising copywriter. Perfectly qualified critics have called O'Donnell's writing "extremely amusing," "delightful ... off-the-wall, highly original," "invigorating, gifted." Vertigo Park is the latest from his wild workshop - a hands-on volume for students of laughter everywhere.

Vertigo Park And Other Tall Tales

"Wise and forgiving . . . tough-minded and tender-hearted" (The New York Times), this delicious "coming of middle age" novel takes a lyrical, winsome, and genuinely side-splitting look at the heartbreak, aging, the search for home, and the madness of love between two mismatched men. "A stylish mix of humorous irony and realistic detail."--San Francisco Examiner &amp; Chronicle. From the Trade Paperback edition.

"Wise and forgiving . . . tough-minded and tender-hearted" (The New York Times), this delicious "coming of middle age" novel takes a lyrical, winsome, and genuinely side-splitting look at the heartbreak, aging, the search for home, and the madness of love between two mismatched men. "A stylish mix of humorous irony and realistic detail."--San Francisco Examiner &amp; Chronicle.

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by O'Donnell, Mark. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by O'Donnell, Mark

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by O'Donnell, Mark. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Vertigo Park/and Other Tall Tales

Let Nothing You Dismay

Let Nothing You Dismay

An Elementary Education: An Easy Alternative to Actual Learning

Getting Over Homer

Elementary Education: An Easy Alternative to Actual Learning

Hairspray: The Roots

Vertigo Park And Other Tall Tales

Getting Over Homer

Getting Over Homer