On the HahaFiction shelf
No Relation
Earnest Hemmingway wants to write a novel. His father wants him to run the family underwear company, and strangers expect a rather different writer when they hear his name. After losing his job and girlfriend, Hem starts a support group for people whose famous names have become a burden.
From the author’s blurb
“It’s time to take back his name.”Read the full description at Terry Fallis, author synopsis
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What makes it funny?
The group includes a Mahatma Ghandi with a furious temper. Hem has an equally awkward inheritance: an underwear dynasty whose proud history includes making the wedgie possible. Readers in book groups remember the famous-name mix-ups and recommend Fallis’s humor.
The comedy at work
Famous names set up expectations these ordinary people promptly disappoint. Hem supplies a more personal kind of embarrassment, too. When a video of his public meltdown goes viral, he insists he is calm while dropping a glass of orange juice on his toe.
Try this if…
A conversational narrator, an eccentric support group and family-business trouble give this the rhythm of a sitcom. It suits readers who like their identity crises interrupted by mundane problems, including who will make the nation’s underwear.
Good to know
There’s swearing and bodily humor alongside the literary-name jokes. Hem’s resistance to inheriting the business runs through the story, with a capable sister caught in a family tradition that favors the firstborn son.
A few distinguishing details
- A support group for people saddled with famous names
- A would-be novelist expected to inherit an underwear empire
More funny family comedy
Sources & further reading
- Trade review
Review
- Reader discussion
Reader discussion
- Chapter two sample
Reading sample
- Author synopsis
Author commentary
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