Jokes for the Apocalypse: Two Novellas

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

The jokes appropriate to the apocalypse could not be expected to amuse. Two dark novellas by a writer of enormous talent admit the reader to two private worlds — one of youth first discovering the pain and fallibility of the Olympian adults who have seemed all-powerful, the second a glimpse into the hell of middle-aged despair experienced by a self-analytical alcoholic caught up in a sordid tragedy beyond his understanding or control.

Carpenter is a writer of extraordinary power and polish. Even his minor characters are drawn to convincing life. Jokes for the Apocalypse is an example of a fine practitioner of the difficult novella form, at peak performance.