Book of the Week

Review by Mark Pellegri

"Lately I've become increasingly disturbed by frequent calls for book bans and censorship of school reading lists by parents in suburban communities. In general I'm against any kind of literary censorship, and think that if anything it is actually a lack of variety and challenging reading material that leaves so many American kids slaves to video games and television, and unequipped to deal with the conflicts presented in these media.
In the case of 101 Hamburger Jokes, however, I make an exception. Not only should this book be banned, but author Phil Hirsch should be shot, or at the very least, for the good of the environment, never be allowed to write another book and waste paper again.
I'll acknowledge that he did choose a challenging topic, hamburgers are a narrow subject, and as a food item don't offer the colorful stereotypes and personality defects that human subjects such as lawyers or blondes would offer. Further, hamburgers are typically thought of as an American item, so the audience and emphasis are also limited. I'm sure most Americans would be unimpressed if they arrived in India and perused "101 Mango Jokes" at the airport bookstore.
However, it was the challenging subject material that piqued my interest in 101 Hamburger Jokes, and I hoped to discover a well executed book that rose to the challenge. Unfortunately, the book not only failed to exceed my expectations, it was truly disappointing. Perhaps worst, Hirsch actually insults the intelligence of his readers with the overuse of exclamation points and underlined text to identify punchlines. Either that or he is betraying a lack of confidence over the standalone quality of the jokes he has selected..."

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