"I seem to bear my share of responsibility, for the chuckles and chortles, all of them naturally nervous and not a few hideously forced, that went around our dinner table." This admission by Anthony Thrasher, the narrator-hero of "Slouching Towards Kalamazoo," could well be mistaken as an authorial plea for indulgence on the part of Peter De Vries. When not "hideously forced," most of his jokes seem silly or simply pointless. Still, in a novel that is devoid of believable characters, compelling narrative and moral resonance, the jokes are probably the best thing to be had.

Certainly, Mr. De Vries is capable of more. Though critical comparisons to the likes of P. G. Wodehouse, Max Beerbohm and Evelyn Waugh have always been overdrawn—his apotheosis is perhaps a reflection of how impoverished American humor truly is—Mr. De Vries has proved, in the past, that he can be...