By Brooke Karanovich
On February 4, 2013, writer and comedian BJ Novak (TV show, “The Office), released his first book, “One More Thing, Stories and Other Stories.” The book is a collection of short stories, encompassing a broad variety of subjects and characters. Each of them has something in common though – they’re hilarious. This is Novak’s first published work, and he wrote a comedic masterpiece. Straying from the beaten path of the traditional comedic memoir of an actor-turned-novelist, Novak instead utilizes a more David Sedaris approach to writing humor in his short stories.
Novak is most well known for his script writing and acting on the Emmy-Award-winning show “The Office,” along with co-writers and actors, such as Mindy Kaling and Rainn Wilson. On the show, Novak played Ryan, the temp, a character particularly loved by Regional Manager Michael Scott, Steve Carrell. Novak’s acting displayed his dry sense of humor, which he also happens to use heavily in his writing.
Novak does a great job of keeping readers interested in his stories with clever, twisted story lines and compelling humor; nor is he conservative in his writing. He freely drops f-bombs and numerous other colorful phrases in many stories. Novak additionally appeals to readers of all interests, touching on such vital subjects such as dark matter, Johnny Depp, Heaven, Justin Bieber and a warlord searching for love with the help of an online dating site.
Novak begins his book with a story called “The Rematch,” about the tortoise’s triumphant victory over the hare. In Novak’s version of the classic tale, the hare is emotionally distraught after his loss, and must work for years to train for the rematch, so that he can regain his self-confidence and prove to the world that he is not a failure. It is creative spins on classic stories such as these that highlight Novak’s comedic finesse. He is able to take a seemingly basic story and transform it into comedic gold.
Other notable stories include: “No One Goes to Heaven to See Dan Fogelberg,” a touching story of a man that meets his grandmother in heaven, later learning the heartbreaking reality of the after-life, as well as “The Something by John Grisham,” in which famed author John Grisham’s newest book is accidentally published with the working title “The Something,” and not a single person notices.
A personal favorite was Novak trying his hand at poetry with the soon to be classic “The Literalist’s Love Poem,” in which he succinctly professes his love in a mere nine words.
This book would be a great read for anybody who loved the books of his comedic contemporaries such as Tina Fey’s “Bossypants” and Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns).” Novak does an extraordinary job telling stories with apparent simplicity, but brings an addition of quirky details and back stories that paint a bigger, hysterical picture.
