The War Against Boredom; Short Stores, Riffs, Insanities

"Great fun!"—Ben Schott, author of Schott’s Original Miscellany"Sharp satire with a poetic heart"—The B&N Review "Seth Kaufman's War Against Boredom is a great antidote to this Kardashianized landscape of selfie-sticks, ISIS attacks, and billionaire presidential wannabes. With lacerating satire, these short stories, riffs, and other insanities will make you laugh. Only our hashtags and Instagram pics can save us now." -- Karl Wolff, The Driftless Area Review The War Against Boredom, by newyorker.com humor contributor Seth Kaufman, is a hilarious and wildly inventive assault on the mind-numbing effects of the modern world. Reverse-engineering obsessions with Big Data, the Internet, movies, coffee shops, pot, spying, rock stars, relationships and sex scandals, Kaufman morphs reality into comedy with 21 short stories and satirical columns. It's a must-read for fans of the author's acclaimed novel The King of Pain and anyone who likes adventurous humor writing. Notable skirmishes in The War Against Boredom: •A husband hires a business consultant to help improve his marriage. •An assistant engineer recalls working with Michael Jackson, Freddie Mercury and a llama. •An insurance actuary becomes a star by decoding the odds for the Academy Awards. •A caustic National Security Administration advice columnist answers questions and exposes employees. •Cheech and Chong reunite over a golden hookah. •A hardcore techie conducts a bizarre old school search for love in “Segway in Overdrive.”

Seth Kaufman grew up in Manhattan and spent his high school years overseas. A recovering journalist, his work has appeared in dozens of publications. His novel The King of Pain was called "One of 2012's most enjoyable novels" by the New York Times. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.