Jewish Wry: Essays on Jewish Humor

The essays in this volume analyze the development of Jewish humor from its roots in Eastern European life and writers like Sholem Aleichem, through performers such as Eddie Cantor and Sophie Tucker, to the present figures such as Philip Roth, Woody Allen and Joan Rivers. The contributors include Irving Howe, Robert Alter, Meyer Wiener, Joseph Boskin, Albert Goldman, Sanford Pinsker, Alan Cooper, and Esther Fuchs.