Lately, walking around the library, I’ve become aware of lots of beady little eyes peering at me from the shelves, and snapping claws reaching out. For some reason the past year or so has seen a strange red tide of books with lobsters on their covers. Not cookbooks, but novels – oddball comic novels in particular. I mentioned this to Trevor Corson, author of The Secret Life of Lobsters, and he agrees: “This is very funny … and weird; some sort of mysterious force must be at work.” Take a look:
The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson. Everything you ever wanted to know about lobsters, but were afraid to ask, (even if you never did want to know anything about lobsters).
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace. Erudite essays on a wide range of topics,
from 9/11 to porn to- yes – lobster.
New Bedlam by Bill Flanagan. Smart satire in which hot shot TV exec Bobby Kahn is marooned in a small Rhode Island town with three channels, one of which is devoted to comic books. Carl Hiaasen North.
Atomic Lobster by Tim Dorsey. The tenth raucous, raunchy adventure of
homicidal maniac Serge Storms. Carl Hiaasen on speed.
Bobbie Faye’s Very (Very, Very, Very) Bad Day by Toni McGee Causey. Comic mystery about the misadventures of a kickass ex-beauty queen’s misadventures on both sides of the law. Okay, sure – Carl Hiaasen in Louisiana.
The Marriage of True Minds by Stephen Evans. A great oddball tale about lawyers Lena and Nick, and the difficulty of loving an animal rights activist given to crazy stunts like filling the mayor’s swimming pool
with lobsters.
Honorable Mentions:
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan
The Lobster War by Ethan Howland
Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon by Joe Queenan
Lobsters: Gangsters of the Sea by Mary Cerullo



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