Rich in family drama, passion, and human affinity, critically acclaimed author Frederick Buechner's contemporary retelling of this captivating and timeless biblical saga revitalizes the ancient story of Jacob, delighted our senses and modern sensibilities and gracing us with his exceptional eloquence and wit.

"An absolutely dazzling entertainment. . . . Arousing on every level—political, erotic, intellectual, and above all, humorous." —Newsweek "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting calls itself a novel, although it is part fairy tale, part literary criticism, part political tract, part musicology, and part autobiography. It can call itself whatever it wants to, because the whole is genius." —New York Times Rich in its stories, characters, and imaginative range, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is the novel that brought Milan Kundera his first big international success in the late 1970s. Like all his work, it is valuable for far more than its historical implications. In seven wonderfully integrated parts, different aspects of human existence are magnified and reduced, reordered and emphasized, newly examined, analyzed, and experienced.

When life is funny, make some jokes about it. Billy Plimpton has a big dream: to become a famous comedian when he grows up. He already knows a lot of jokes, but thinks he has one big problem standing in his way: his stutter. At first, Billy thinks the best way to deal with this is to . . . never say a word. That way, the kids in his new school won’t hear him stammer. But soon he finds out this is NOT the best way to deal with things. (For one thing, it’s very hard to tell a joke without getting a word out.) As Billy makes his way toward the spotlight, a lot of funny things (and some less funny things) happen to him. In the end, the whole school will know -- If you think you can hold Billy Plimpton back, be warned: The joke will soon be on you!

From childhood to adulthood Charles (Hardrock) Smith has never met a stranger and never will. Folks are drawn to his friendliness and sense of humor. He loves the Lord and is a most loving husband, father, and grandfather. He is a remarkable man who overcame a difficult childhood, being raised in a bootlegger's home. The family endured hardships such as running from the law, living in shacks, plus enduring mental and physical abuse. Hardrock and his two sisters could never have friends over to spend the night and were taught to lie and, at times, steal corn for their daddy's still. His daddy made moonshine, and his mother sold it in their kitchen, nightly, by the glass. Hardrock and his mother were physically abused by his father. Through it all, though, he never lost his sense of humor which helped his mother and sisters get through tough times. So, in these little pages are memories of his life, living with a bootlegger. Some memories, sealed forever in his mind, are difficult to say the least; some, for a child's recollection, are great memories of family and friends who made this journey joyful and good and helped shape the man Hardrock became, hoping to help others with their journey, adding laughter along the way...grow old, just never grow up!

Paul’s passionate Letter to the Galatians has occasioned various perspectives (old, new, radical new, apocalyptic, etc.) for explaining Paul’s defense of the “truth of the gospel” in it. This book makes an audacious claim that the allegorical passage of 4:21–5:1 is the best vantage point for configuring Paul’s theological vision and logic in the letter. Offering a fresh approach for understanding Paul’s allegorical practice, it demonstrates how both the Abraham narrative and the book of Isaiah function as a formative matrix for Paul’s theology. With an in-depth analysis of these scriptural texts, Paul’s two identifications for believers in Christ—belonging to the “Jerusalem above” and being “children of promise” in the pattern of Isaac—receive new clarity and precision. The investigative journey in this book discusses key concepts and texts from Galatians, and addresses questions concerning the shape of Paul’s retelling of Israel’s story in relation to Jews and Gentiles. The result is a well-grounded interpretation of Paul’s conception of the gospel that made him new and continues to bring about new creation in our world.

Uncovering an archive of laughter, from the forbidden giggle to the explosive guffaw. Most of our theories of laughter are not concerned with laughter. Rather, their focus is the laughable object, whether conceived of as the comic, the humorous, jokes, the grotesque, the ridiculous, or the ludicrous. In Laughter, Anca Parvulescu proposes a return to the materiality of the burst of laughter itself. She sets out to uncover an archive of laughter, inviting us to follow its rhythms and listen to its tones. Historically, laughter—especially the passionate burst of laughter—has often been a faux pas. Manuals for conduct, abetted by philosophical treatises and literary and visual texts, warned against it, offering special injunctions to ladies to avoid jollity that was too boisterous. Returning laughter to the history of the passions, Parvulescu anchors it at the point where the history of the grimacing face meets the history of noise. In the civilizing process that leads to laughter's “falling into disrepute,” as Nietzsche famously put it, we can see the formless, contorted face in laughter being slowly corrected into a calm, social smile. How did the twentieth century laugh? Parvulescu points to a gallery of twentieth-century laughers and friends of laughter, arguing that it is through Georges Bataille that the century laughed its most distinct laugh. In Bataille's wake, laughter becomes the passion at the heart of poststructuralism. Looking back at the century from this vantage point, Parvulescu revisits four of its most challenging projects: modernism, the philosophical avant-gardes, feminism, and cinema. The result is an overview of the twentieth century as seen through the laughs that burst at some of its most convoluted junctures.

"Christian laughter is a maze: you could easily get snarled up within it." So says Michael A. Screech in his note to readers preceding this collection of fifty-three elegant and pithy essays. As Screech reveals, the question of whether laughter is acceptable to the god of the Old and New Testaments is a dangerous one. But we are fortunate in our gu