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Lorna Landvik

Best to Laugh: A Novel Hardcover – September 15, 2014

by Lorna Landvik (Author)

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No one steps up to life’s banquet, holds out her tray, and orders, “Grief, please!” But as a child, Candy Pekkala was served a heaping helping of it. Every buffet line has a dessert section, however, and when a cousin calls with a Hollywood apartment to sublet, it seems as though Candy is finally offered something sweet. It’s good-bye to Minnesota and hello to California, where a girl who has always lived by her wits has a real chance of making a living with them. With that, the irrepressible Lorna Landvik launches her latest irresistible character onto the world stage—or at least onto the dimly lit small stage where stand-up comedy gets its start.

Herself a comic performer, Landvik taps her own adventurous past and Minnesota roots to conjure Candy’s life in this strange new Technicolor home. Her fellow tenants at Peyton Hall include a female bodybuilder, a ruined nightclub impresario, and a well-connected Romanian fortune-teller. There are game show appearances and temp jobs at a record company and an establishment suspiciously like the Playboy Mansion, and of course the alluring but not always welcoming stage of stand-up comedy. As she hones her act, Candy is tested by humiliation, hecklers, and the inherent sexism that insists “chicks aren’t funny.”

Written with the light touch and quiet wisdom that have made her works so popular, this is classic Lorna Landvik—sometimes so funny, you’ll cry; sometimes so sad, you might as well laugh; and always impossible to put down.

Print length

296 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Univ Of Minnesota Press
Publication date

September 15, 2014
Dimensions

6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0816694532
ISBN-13

978-0816694532
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Best to Laugh is cheerfully outlandish, filled with ambition, love, adventure, kindness, swimming pools, nightclubs, and baked goods. Best of all, it’s laugh-out-loud hilarious.
—Julie Schumacher, author of The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls and Dear Committee Members

Best to Laugh had me laughing out loud. It’s both funny and tender, and filled with memorable characters. You can’t help but love Candy Pekkala and her quirky, mixologist grandmother. Lorna Landvik has written a charming novel with real heart.
—Shannon Olson, author of Welcome to My Planet

One of the things that accounts for Lorna Landvik’s immense popularity is the essential good-heartedness she brings to her work. But as much as this is a celebration of a very special time and place, it is even more a celebration of character, desire, friendship, perseverance, and love—oh, and hamburger hot dish.
—Elizabeth Berg, author of Tapestry of Fortunes and The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted

GREAT NOVEL!!! It reads like an autobiography! Best to Laugh, although fiction, is one of the truest accounts of a Hollywood life one can read. It takes a master of comedy to be able to write about the business of laughter. To interpret its roots and inner working. Lorna Landvik is precisely that. I, for one of many, can attribute countless gut busting laughs to the genius of Lorna. A great nostalgic tale.
—Mo Collins, actress/comedian

"Landvik’s novel is happily filled with a double dose of nostalgia—the protagonist’s for the golden age of Hollywood and the author’s for a lovably gritty 1970s Los Angeles." —Kirkus Reviews

"Filled with historical lore about Hollywood’s glory days, inside observations about the chauvinism that pervades the comedy boys’ club, and a bevy of secondary characters straight out of central casting, Landvik’s homage to funny ladies everywhere is a joyful, breezy trip down memory lane." —Booklist

"Best to Laugh recounts real—poignant and laugh-out-loud funny—experience." —Star Tribune

"Best to Laugh has Landvik’s signature humor—a little corny, a lot sweet—and the sort of friends-become-family characters that defined her best-selling debut Patty Jane’s House of Curl. There is a Steel Magnolias-style of laugh-aw-cry-laugh likability to the tale and the 1970s-ness is so palpable, you can practically hear the whisper-walk of a woman’s silk pantsuit." —Duluth News-Tribune

About the Author

Lorna Landvik is the best-selling author of many novels, including Patty Jane’s House of Curl, Angry Housewives Eating Bon-Bons, Oh My Stars, and Mayor of the Universe (Minnesota, 2014). She has performed stand-up and improvisational comedy around the country and is also a public speaker, playwright, and actor, most recently seen in an all-improvised, one-woman show Party in the Rec Room.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Univ Of Minnesota Press; 1st edition (September 15, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 296 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0816694532
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0816694532
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,934,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,950 in Humorous American Literature
- #22,088 in Humorous Fiction (Books)
- #33,169 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
123 ratings

About the author

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Lorna Landvik

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Lorna Landvik is the author of ten novels, including the best-selling PATTY JANE'S HOUSE OF CURL, ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BON BONS, OH MY STARS and the recently published BEST TO LAUGH.

Landvik's checkered (but legal) past includes working as a chambermaid in Bavaria, winning a trip to Tahiti as a contestant on '$25,000 Pyramid' (MacGyver was her partner), temping at the Playboy Mansion (it was strictly a clerical position) and walking across the country as a member of The Great Peace March.

She has acted in many theatrical productions, including a half dozen shows she conveniently wrote for herself. Her all-improvised show, PARTY IN THE REC ROOM is a local legend, due in no small part to the margaritas she mixes up onstage.

She is currently working on two novels, one of which is a sequel to her first book. She has one husband and two daughters and lives in the beautiful blue and green state of Minnesota.

Customer reviews

5 star		64%
4 star		18%
3 star		10%
2 star		6%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Laurie Brandt

Light, fun & entertaining

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2021

Verified Purchase

Candy’s adventures in Hollywood after it’s golden age are delightful. Her own ambitions to be a stand up comedian evolve as she commits to making her dream a reality. Through it all, friendship and laughter sustain everyone, including the reader! A light, breezy but not cheesey read.

Helpful

Rebecca A. Rose

Funny and just what I needed!

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

In these trying times, finding something to read that can hold my attention, make me laugh out loud, and bring tears to my eyes is a treat! This book did all three, and I thank the author for that!

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2019

Verified Purchase

Another winner by Lorna Landvik. Her fans won’t be disappointed by this somewhat autobiographical story. Her rich characters are east to follow and fall in Love with.

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Linda Collins

I love Ms Landvik but read Angry Housewives and Oh My Stars if you want the very best she has to offer.

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2015

Verified Purchase

I love Lorna Landvik. Ms Landvik is one of my favorite all time authors. I was disappointed in this book. Compared to Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons and Oh My Stars, which are amongst my literary lifetime favorites.....Best to Laugh doesn't come close to the place those two hold in my heart. Maybe it is true that we have only one, and at best two, great books inside of each of us. If this is the case I will satisfy myself by knowing that I have already experienced her best and pass on Ms Landvik's next offering.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sue Henshaw

NOt up to Landvik's usual standards

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2019

Verified Purchase

Okay book, but too many characters and I really didn't like them that much.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Wendy Hug

Always entertaining

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2016

Verified Purchase

As usual, another book I looked forward to being able to read when I could, I am a busy working mom but any free time I have I know Lorna will never let me down . She fills my soul with just what I need to keep me smiling when life gets crazy . Please keep the stories coming .

Helpful

Rachella

funny, light-hearted story line

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book has a positive, funny, light-hearted story line. I enjoyed it. The end dragged on a bit. The author seems to have a need to tie up every loose end, for the next 20 years. Sometimes it's better to keep the readers guessing.

Helpful

alicia hartsell

even when the context of the plot is not my favorite..

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2014

Verified Purchase

Cannot go wrong with Lorna Landvik...even when the context of the plot is not my favorite...her characterization is so beautiful I end up rooting for them, even the "less evolved". If you are interested in old Hollywood, or the passage of era(s), or dynamics of mixed marriage in America...something for you here...

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