On the HahaFiction shelf
Carrying Albert Home
by Homer Hickam
Elsie Hickam's pet alligator is a wedding gift from the man she once loved. Albert lives in the only bathroom of the home she shares with her coal-miner husband, Homer. When Homer finally demands a choice, their answer is a thousand-mile drive to return Albert to Florida.
From the author’s blurb
“Everything in Carrying Albert Home is true except those parts that aren’t.”Read the full description at Homer Hickam
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What makes it funny?
Homer has to share his bathroom with a living reminder of his romantic rival. The solution to this domestic problem requires taking the alligator on the road with them, giving a marital ultimatum a remarkably inconvenient outcome.
The comedy at work
Hickam lets the journey accumulate the sort of adventures that improve with retelling. In Don Noble's review, a chance encounter with John Steinbeck turns into unsolicited advice from a striker about selling more books by adding blood and guts.
Try this if…
Affectionate family tall tales are the draw, especially for readers who enjoy an episodic journey through Depression-era America. The couple's unsettled marriage gives the adventures something more painful to return to.
Good to know
Hickam calls this an adult novel. It draws on stories about his parents and freely invents around them; Noble distinguishes it from the more realistic Coalwood memoirs. The introduction describes dangerous mining work and families living with loss.
More funny picaresque
Sources & further reading
- Author paperback listing
Author commentary
- Author description
Author commentary
- Don Noble review
Review
- Author introduction
Reading sample
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