To wrap up this month’s theme of fun, my last post is a review of books by Patrick F. McManus because they are pure pleasure to read. If you need a laugh, you can’t do better than turning to these humorous short stories and essays.
Patrick F. McManus’s pieces originally appeared in magazines like Outdoor Life and Field and Stream before they were collected into books. But you don’t have to know a thing about hunting, fishing, or any outdoor activities to find these stories hilarious. Below are some of my favorites from several of his books.
Real Ponies Don’t Go Oink!
“Strange Meets Matilda Jean”. Pat’s disreputable dog from his childhood, Strange, who acts like he owns the family farm, has an encounter with the new cat Pat’s sister, the Troll, adopts.
“Blood Sausage”. At twelve, Pat and his whole family have to help his stepfather Hank make blood sausage when they slaughter their pigs in the fall. Pat is revolted at the whole process, but his grandmother won’t excuse him from helping because it will hurt Hank’s feelings. Pat swears revenge on her, and his opportunity comes in an unexpected way.
“Secret Places”. In this essay, Pat writes about his love of secret places, like the a fishing spot only he knows about.
“All my life I have had secret places. I like secret places. They make me feel smug and superior, two of the really great feelings.
The Bear in the Attic
“Real Work”. Pat describes his first real job when he was a teen in rural Idaho in the late 1940’s, working for a local farmer named Gutman.
“The Bear in the Attic”. During WWII, on the homefront, when Pat is ten, his older cousin is drafted. His aunt is so upset that when her husband finds an abandoned baby bear at the lumber mill, she takes the cub in. Which is fine, since he’s a cub. But Pooky doesn’t stay a cub.
Never Sniff a Gift Fish
“The Bush Pilots”. Pat’s best friend when he was a kid was Crazy Eddie Muldoon, who had a genius for creating trouble. In this story, Pat and Eddie decide to build a bush plane and launch it from the top of the Muldoon’s barn.
“Never Sniff a Gift Fish”. On a fishing trip with his friends Retch and Al, Pat is driven nearly insane as Al invents learned sayings about the outdoor life in the style of Benjamin Franklin quotes.
The Grasshopper Trap
“Mean Tents”. Pat relates his bad experiences with tents.
“The Swamp”. As a teen, Pat gets lost with his friend Birdy and old backwoodsmen Rancid Crabtree on a homemade raft in a local swamp.
There was a stillness in the air, broken only by the sounds of water burbling against the raft, the splashes of our poles, and a strange, eerie moaning.
“For cripes sake, Birdy!” I said. “Would you stop your dang eerie moaning? It’s getting on my nerves!”
“The Grasshopper Trap”. Pat and Crazy Eddie enlist the aid of Rancid to build a trap to catch grasshoppers for fishing bait. It doesn’t go as they planned.
And for the writer …
Mr. McManus also taught writing at Eastern Washington State College. So it seems natural he would write a book on how to write humorous stories. Click here for my review of The Deer on a Bicycle: Excursions into the Writing of Humor.
For a complete list of Mr. McManus’s books, click here.
Which authors do you read if you need a laugh?
