Some novels are so comical

It's easier to write a tear jerker than a comedy.Somehow sob stories are a dime a dozen but witty writing tickles the funny bone.I was giggling reading Will Hodgkinson's novel The house is full of Yogis".He has a far from boring childhood with such eccentric parents.His dad was a madcap overindulgent parent who never really mature-did things equally childish as his kids like setting out ridiculous fireworks.
   His mom was a radical feminist,not your stereotypical housewife-they looked like from the era of the flower power people,mary Quant and bell bottoms and platform shoes.The counter culture people who rebelled against conventional behavioursInvasion of the yogis into their household turned routine topsy turvy.A dad who taught a pet gerbil to meditate with him

This is a light hearted easy going novel -good to look at botchedup childhood.This novel would make a hilarious movie with melodramatic parents -a father who lights unique fireworks that ran haywire and shooting off in all directions,causing the dinner guests in the garden to run for cover and a control freak mom who insisted she knew how to captain a houseboat and lands up in the river.What a crazy family!Makes Home Alone a relatively tame movie by comparison.
    If I had lots of money,I would finance a coming of age movie from this novel.I nearly choked on my breakfast ,spewing out hot earl grey tea,chuckling out loudly when I was reading at the dining table about the crazy nature camp Will was sent to where they had to learn how to simplify their lives and live without modern conveniences like dishwashers but the BEST part was the primitive hole in the ground toilet.They were asked to save paper and be environmentally friendly by using water to wash their bum which he described in freezing cold weather as "the bottom water torture" and while he was squatting on two filmsy planks placed above a smelly poo filled pit,he was praying not to make ONE false move or he wouldn't wish to live any longer."Ha Ha ha,reminds me of a PIT Stop we did in a rural village in Szechuan in which there were no toilet doors and we squatted between two planks ,trying not to off balance,which could send us plunging into the cesspit of human manure and excreta,excreta,excreta. ETC.But the melodrama didnt end there,just when he thought things couldnt get worse,a five year old girl came upon him doing his "private thing" and wouldnt leave him in peace by asking awkward questions and staring at him.He shouted at her to get lost and go back to the camp,whereupon she stumbled and pulled down the cloth screen tied between two poles .He heard howls of laughter as the whole team of guys and gals were exposed to him squatting down with pants pulled down to his ankles.It was a Show time" for the whole camp but He had to continue what he had started.The scene was so hilarious that I lost my appetite to eat breakfast and packed it up.Now if you see this novel at Book Excess ,Buy it.You can die laughing!!!!!