The Worm In Philly by Sam Lipsyte, 2010
The magic trick:
Tapping into deep sadness and hilarity
I’ve read several stories and highlighted them on SSMT that mixed humor with sadness. The chocolate covered pretzel approach to literature.
Certainly, that description applies to today’s excellent story, “The Worm In Philly,” detailing a group of junkies and their dubious exploits.
There’s something here though that elevates it above most every other example of mixing funny and sad. And it will sound stupid to say, but that hasn’t stopped me before on this site. This story isn’t just funny; it’s very funny. And then this story isn’t just sad; it’s very sad.
And that’s quite a trick on Lipsyte’s part.
The selection:
Classic American story: I was out of money and people I could ask for money. Then I got what the Greeks, or even the Greek Americans, call a eureka moment.
I would write a book for children about the great middleweight Marvelous Marvin Hagler. My father had been a sportswriter before he started forgetting things, like the fact he had been a sportswriter, so the idea did not seem crazy. Probably it’s like when your father is president. You think: if that fuck could do it.
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