Mark Harris is one of the most engaging of the young novelists, a man of incorrigibly high spirits, one who is not merely willing but delighted to entertain his readers. "Wake Up, Stupid" … is the wildest and gayest of his novels, and I hope that many readers will find this out. Some of them, I trust, will also discover that Harris has a large capacity for seriousness.

"Wake Up, Stupid" is a novel that is presented through letters and, occasionally, documents…. The letters are written by or to Lee Youngdahl, a professor of English at a college in San Francisco….

The invention is in part of a rather rough-and-ready sort. Lee Youngdahl being what he is, the epistolary form lends itself to gags and wisecracks, and there is a good deal of what might be called low humor. There is also sharp satire….

The form Harris has chosen...