I think you will find Stanley Elkin's The Living End either hilariously funny or not funny at all. I managed to hover between the two extremes, finding some of the ripostes very good (a man in hell says, "It's too hot to harbor a grudge") but the main story-line labored and the humor often over-extended. The Living End is divided into three parts to parallel the sections of The Divine Comedy, but there the resemblance ceases. Some of the dialogue is Beckett-like, some of the inventions upon the theme of death and life after death are reminiscent of Mark Twain's later fooling around with such ideas, but mostly the humor is black and bitter. The writing is wonderful, the language rich and varied, and the Jewish dialect accorded Joseph and Mary successful, at least at the start. (p. R13)

Doris Grumbach, "A Season Redolent of Worthy Fiction," in...