Dating Your Mom by Ian Frazier
Ian Frazier’s comics from the 1970s and 1980s are collected in Dating Your Mom, the majority of which were initially seen in The New Yorker. Ian Frazier is a master of writing brief humour. For instance, the play “Dating Your Mom” is quite literally about falling in love with the person who gave birth to you. Although it is a ridiculous and even unsettling concept, it is executed with such joy that it never comes off as impolite. Frazier highlights the benefits of dating one’s mother, such as the chance for being pushed around in a stroller.
Dating Your Mom by Ian Frazier
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Ian Frazier is the author of the FSG-published books Great Plains, The Fish’s Eye, On the Rez, Family, Coyote v. Acme, and Dating Your Mom. He is a regular New Yorker contributor who resides in Montclair, New Jersey. The more serious work that Frazier does is likewise well known.
He has authored numerous articles for The New Yorker and The Atlantic over the years, and he recently published a book titled Travels in Siberia. But he is the maestro of what The New Yorker refers to as “the Casual,” in my opinion. From reading his Casuals, I developed my own. He starts with a simple premise—even a one-note one, like dating your mother—and twists it in such a way that you never see what’s coming. In hindsight, the entire idea seems to make some sort of perverse sense.
Another tale in the collection is about a man who was reared by wolves and is adjusting to human norms. His wolf father periodically appears in the middle of the night with a dead deer to teach the man where all the fatty bits are. It is jam-packed with incredibly creative and hilarious comedy essays. I’d suggest every one of Frazier’s current three or four collections.
