Simmons: Now I Can Die in Peace

Posted on January 2, 2006 by sheila

I am now reading Now I Can Die in Peace: How The Sports Guy Found Salvation Thanks to the World Champion (Twice!) Red Sox by the wonderful Bill Simmons Sports Guy (I bought a copy for everyone in my family this Christmas – and then couldn’t stand it and had to buy one for myself) – and I swear: I laugh out loud at something on every page. How does he do it?? I guffaw randomly, in public, reading the damn thing. It would be like if Patrick Hughes wrote a book. Or if I could read Patrick Hughes’ blog in public on the subway. I would make a fool out of myself. People would get annoyed sitting next to me. Simmons’ chapter on El Guapo was enough to put me out of commission for about 10 minutes. But his writing – it is just so PRO-ACTIVELY funny. His brain thinks humorously – not everybody’s brain does. His brain instinctively goes for the comedy. And I SO enjoy that sensibility. Sometimes a joke isn’t funny – but 9 times out of 10 – the NEXT one is – and I am telling you – it is a laugh-a-minute kind of a book. I’ll post some excerpts when I can stop reading long enough to get to it.

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6 Responses to Simmons: Now I Can Die in Peace

  1. brendan says:
    January 2, 2006 at 4:13 pm

    i was up until 2am last night finishing this book. i was CRYING. i don’t know what it is about him..he somehow voices the exact mentality. hi-f’in-larious.

  2. siobhan says:
    January 2, 2006 at 4:18 pm

    i love how he says Jimy Williams made decisions from the weebil that resided in his mouth. endlessly funny.

  3. Alex Nunez says:
    January 3, 2006 at 11:18 am

    Another author who I recommend for the sort of “pro-actively funny” (great term) writing style he has is Carl Hiaasen. His novels usually leave me in tears. Hiaasen, like Dave Barry, is a Miami Herald guy. I don’t know what it is about South Florida writers, but the insanity of the region just seeps into their style. I started with “Skin Tight”, which centers roughly around a plastic surgeon, a Miami homicide detective (who makes appearances in other Hiaasen novels), a disfigured hitman, and the laid-back “hero” character. I read it in one day. I was sad when I finished it.

    Sorry to hijack the Simmons thread…but I cannot think of LOL funny writers without thinking of Carl Hiaasen. If you weren’t familiar with his stuff, I urge you to give him a try. (His collection of Miami Herald columns, “Kick Ass”, is also super. I remember his post-Hurricane Andrew work from when I was in school down in Miami, and it was utterly spectacular.)

    Enough rambling. If you try Hiaasen, let me know what you think!

  4. red says:
    January 3, 2006 at 11:23 am

    I will definitely check him out, Alex! I’ve heard of him – but never read anything, I don’t think.

    It’s SO rare to find writers who are successfully funny like Simmons – They try to be funny and just end up being grating or tiresome – Dave Barry is definitely another one of those guys who I cannot read without laughing out loud every other second.

  5. Alex Nunez says:
    January 3, 2006 at 11:38 am

    Dave Barry is a genius. As good as his columns and blog are, you should read his novels as well. That “Big Trouble” was made into such a lackluster movie shows how much of a crapshoot it is when Hollywood decides to adapt something for the screen. That book was a scream.

    Hollywood also blew it with “Strip Tease”, a dumb, unfunny movie adapted from Hiaasen’s typically intelligent and very witty novel.

  6. Kerry O'Malley says:
    January 3, 2006 at 12:45 pm

    The Simmons book is HILARIOUS. ‘Nuf said.

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