Just read Tayari’s link to the Jezebel post about the NYT article. Women writers aren’t funny! Just off the top of my head:

  • Florence King. Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady. Made me laugh until I was stupid.
  • Dodie Smith. I Capture the Castle. A gentler humor, but seriously funny.
  • I’d even argue that a lot of The Country Girls trilogy by Edan O’Brien is comedy.
  • Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the 1925 Anita Loos novel, not the 1953 Marilyn Monroe vehicle.
  • The Egg and I, by Betty MacDonald. OK, so it’s a memoir, not a novel. Still.
  • Bridget Jones’ Diary. Chick-lit? Sure. Spawner of a thousand pink-covered saccharine imitations and responsible for the current plague of clumsy heroines? Guilty. Funny? Definitely.

And I don’t even have my bookshelf in front of me.

Of course, Tayari asked for funny women of color, and that’s, sadly, a lot harder.

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