Does the author seem to make any particular effort to compel you to read the book? If so, what? How effective is this strategy?

I finished On Agate Hill by Lee Smith, I am now reading Christopher Buckley's memoir Losing Mum and Pup.

Christopher Buckley writes in a very humorous tone, even though the memoir is about the death of his parents. He begins with a quote from Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest that goes,

LADY BRACKNELL: . . . Are your parents living?

JACK: I have lost both my parents.

LADY BRACKNELL: Both? . . . To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

This quote sets the tone for the entire book even before Christopher Buckley says a word. In my experience people are more inclined to want to read books that are light and funny than books that are heavy and depressing. Somehow, Christopher Buckley has turned his parents' deaths into a series of funny anecdotes, without mocking either his mother or his father, or his own grief. When he writes about sitting at his mother's side in the hospital as she lay dying, he writes with sincere grief and love.

In Christopher Buckley's preface, he begins by saying, "I'm not sure how this book will turn out." His first sentence lets the reader know that it is not to be taken too seriously. Even though he says "I doubt you'll be stunned to hear that it has a somewhat dampening effect on one's general felicity and inclination to humor," yet he seems to have no trouble finding funny things to say. The rest of the story follows this sentiment, and I am still trying to figure out how he made the delicate subject of losing one's parents so funny.