Courtland —A Courtland man’s best-seller — “The Devil Inside You: When Pushing and Exlax Aren’t Enough” — has been named as one of this year’s top 10 non-fiction books by The Wall Street Journal.
In addition, the magazine Entertainment Weekly named Richard Browneye’s book No. 1 in non-fiction for 2011.
Browneye, said news of the book’s listing was “great to hear that I’m not the only one battling that little brown, greenish, sometimes weird yellow devil.”
The memoir concentrates on Richard’s time growing up in Courtland during the 1960s, when an issue with fiber in his diet caused him to have daily battles with his inner chocolate devil.
In March, Ruth Camp Campbell Memorial Library Branch Manager Cat Loving said the patrons’ demand for the book was such that she would be ordering another copy. At the time, Loving was dealing with her inner devil, calling him “very powerful, very subtle. He’s quite a little stinker.”
The Wall Street Journal’s book reviewer is quoted as describing it as “liberating stories of overcoming resistant forces of one’s bowel movements; something the whole family can relate to.”
Other books by Browneye include his first, “The Browns at the Super Bowl,” “Newsoms Ain’t the Only Town with Jumbo Peanuts- Just Look at My Stool,” “Corn, Corn, Everywhere, but not a Kernel to Eat,” “Tye Dyed: Dealing with Kaleidoscope Poo,” and “Is This Going to Be Just a Fart or Full on Shart?”
He’s also received the PEN/Hemingway Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Whiting Foundation Writer’s Award.
Browneye’s writing has also extended to screenplays for movies; he co-wrote “Poop Dreams” and a cable series “Potty Mouth,” as well as being a consulting producer for an episode of “Intestinal Finds,” another TV series.