Full disclosure. This new independently-published book’s author is a friend and classmate from Western’s Meds ‘70 class. He has travelled all over North America giving almost 1000 entertaining talks to various groups, including our class reunions, on the nature and importance of humour in our lives.
Divided into 31 short, logically-arranged chapters, the insights Ken provides range from hilarious anecdotes to very serious discussion about different kinds of humour and his recommendations about how we can increase our collective and individual happiness quotient should be taken seriously. Many of the jokes and anecdotes, largely from his long career as a family doctor, were familiar to me but there are enough new ones to give me chuckles. The quotes from various historical figures and scholars, including Rod Martin, another friend from my days as a member of the now defunct London and Area Humanist Association give readers a thoughtful background into the nature of humour and its importance in our lives.
I noted several typos and grammatical errors that escaped the notice of the proofreaders, but they are probably less frequent and less significant than those in my own books-there are at least two geographic errors in my novel, mere mortals.
One relevant anecdote for Ken to ponder. I recall an American College of Physicians Ontario branch meeting at which the late Malcolm Muggeridge, of Punch magazinefame, was the guest speaker talking about the nature of humour. He related that he didn’t object to so-called dirty jokes because most humour depends on sudden incongruity. Then, with a sly smirk, looking at his wife sitting at the end of the head table, he said that nothing in nature was more prone to sudden incongruity than the way the human reproductive system was designed and functioned.
A thoroughly enjoyable and thoughtful analysis full of sage advice from a true expert. It is available from http://www.heathyhumor.ca.
The Passionate Reader 