Howard Jacobson's 1996 television series on the nature of the comic and accompanying written study, published in 1997, are titled Seriously Funny. That title, at once oxymoron and skittish postmodern catchphrase, reflects Jacobson's fascination with incongruity. Though the incongruous is a feature of most comic writing, Jacobson's predilection for it as the basis of his novels is marked. Reading his work can be a frustrating experience. He can be uproariously funny and delightfully liberating as a breaker of modern taboos and intelligent in his use of the absurd to expose society's sexual and cultural condition. Nevertheless, Jacobson's tendency to set up narrative patterns that require more careful management than he seems prepared to give them sometimes detracts from the pleasure of the nicely realized comic episodes and the mordant comments on life's absurdities. The key to this apparent reluctance to discipline his narratives may well lie in Jacobson's essential themes...