Welcome

Welcome to my Writing blog. If you're interested in my comments about "My Favorite Things," my articles for yourLDSneighborhood.com, and Life in general, click here. For a direct link to my website, click rondahinrichsen.com.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

What Carole Thayne Warburton Did Right--Humor

Sun Tunnels and Secrets
Authors try to capture their readers' emotions. Before reading Sun Tunnels and Secrets (provided by the publisher), I concentrated on creating grief, fear, and joy in my stories, but now I realized humor is not only an effective, writing garnish, but it's also a powerful "tunnel" to emotion. Who hasn't laughed so hard they cried? Or cried so hard they laughed? My point is, humor has the power to connect stories to their audiences, and Sun Tunnels and Secrets is filled with that power.

Case in point, Warburton's protagonists are more than people, their characters. By "characters," I mean they're the slightly "off," yet truly lovable people whose unconventional antics make life a bit more enjoyable. We all know them. They're kind of like the nosy yet too daring Sadie Hoffmiller in Josi Kilpack's culinary mysteries.

Sun Tunnels and Secrets incorporates other humorous elements as well. In fact, it reminds me of a zany cross between the movies, Driving Miss Daisy and Pure Luck; it's filled with laugh-out-loud humor (one sister refuses to die in Tremonton, Utah, because she can't stand the thought of a certain mortician laying her out),wild coincidences that somehow make sense (finding a naked, dead man out in the middle of nowhere who just happens to be able to help solve a long, lost family secret), and age-old insights that can only be taught with gentle wit (I'll let you pick these out for yourself.).


4 comments:

C.J. said...

Thanks for a very fun review. Let's hope we get some entrants! You're awesome.

Taffy said...

Another book to add to my list!

Stephanie Black said...

I really like how you emphasized the humor in the book--it makes me want to read it even more. I love how humor can bring life to even serious stories (like the way JK Rowling throws these hilarious observations into the middle of a very serious plot).

And congrats to Carole on the Whitney nomination!

Annette Lyon said...

I've been looking forward to reading this one--mostly because it's by Carole!