JEWISH COMEDY A Serious History

This audiobook grew out of the author's course at Columbia University, and it retains much of the analytical depth of its precursor without the dry stretches that plague much academic writing. Of course, any history of humor must include some jokes, and Dauber knows how to tell a joke. The stretches of history are mostly less funny, but those who aren't interested in history won't be listening to this, in any case. It's not a joke book. Humor comes mostly out of everyday life, and Dauber weaves the narrative of everyday Jewish life (from the Babylonian exile to the present) and the literary record into a story of why a nation laughed--and needed to. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2017]