Porterhouse Blue by Tom Sharpe has some excruciating scenes [very funny] of male embarrassment.
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis – full of the cringe-making faux pas of the ‘hero’.
Both of these of course, are intended to entertain the reader. I can’t think of any serious books where characters do embarrassing things; I guess that’s because it might make the reader laugh when you don’t want them to.
People like to be given permission to laugh and point when reading about the dumb things other people do – but the fact is, everyone does them, all the time; mostly we don’t admit it! It’s good you already realise that it’s ok to mess up – that’s being a human being.
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A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
Porterhouse Blue by Tom Sharpe has some excruciating scenes [very funny] of male embarrassment.
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis – full of the cringe-making faux pas of the ‘hero’.
Both of these of course, are intended to entertain the reader. I can’t think of any serious books where characters do embarrassing things; I guess that’s because it might make the reader laugh when you don’t want them to.
People like to be given permission to laugh and point when reading about the dumb things other people do – but the fact is, everyone does them, all the time; mostly we don’t admit it! It’s good you already realise that it’s ok to mess up – that’s being a human being.