Jean Kerr, who is in the process of becoming one of the country's foremost humorists, would no doubt stand up and scream bloody murder at any implication that her work is sociological source material.

Well, scream away, dear Mrs. Kerr. Because it is. (p. 393)

Mrs. Kerr and her ilk exemplify a kind of contemporary egalitarianism that permits, indeed encourages, a cheerful, wisecracking relationship between parents and children. Contrary to the dim forebodings of some sociologists, there is little to indicate that such parents have lost the whip hand. Their egalitarianism is of the current and usual variety: everybody's equal, but in the family structure parents are more equal than anybody else. (pp. 393-94)

Above all, this type of humor is cleanly and American. It is equal, as Mrs. Kerr mentions in a chapter [in The Snake Has All the Lines] titled "My Wild Irish Mother," to coping with...