Humor and Pain

We had an interesting discussion at my critique group meeting today. It centered around the co-existence of humor and pain in novels. A book that immediately came to mind was one I'd recently read called Mockingbird, by Kathryn Erskine, about a child with Asperger's syndrome who had recently lost a beloved brother. The author does a magnificent job of getting into this little girl's head to tell the story, adeptly showing the confused thoughts associated with the disease, and the painful insults she endures from classmates while trying to comprehend the tremendous void in her heart. Even with such a heavy topic, Ms. Erskine has woven in amazing humor that made me laugh out loud. Done well, such humor intensifies the love and sympathy the reader feels for the protagonist as she plays out the painful elements of her life. In real life, pain and humor often go hand-in-hand. We can probably all remember sad and/or tragic times when something humorous happens that makes us smile, maybe even laugh, and we think, how can I possible laugh at a time like this. Maybe it's what keeps us from crashing. The trick in writing is to make the humor real and spontaneous, not contrived.