Extravaganza: A Joke Book

Gordon Lish. White Pine Press (NY), $10 (190pp) ISBN 978-1-877727-05-4

``Wholly original in concept and often brilliant in execution, Extravaganza lives up to its title,'' asserted PW . A fictionalized version of the old vaudeville team Smith & Dale tells familiar, Yiddish theater-inflected burlesque routines. But early on the jokes begin to go wrong; characters spew anti-Semitic invective, stories become violent and bizarre. (June)

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