["The Elephant and the Kangaroo"] is a satirical fantasy set in Ireland….

The apparatus required for this latest demonstration of White magic includes one "practical" Englishman, who looks like the author and bears his name, thinks like an encyclopedia, does oil paintings adorned with glass eyes stuck to the canvas with putty, and lives on an Irish farm; his landlord, Mikey O'Callaghan, an Irish Jeeter Lester; his landlord's wife, whose resistance to reason is a shield on which whole legions of logic are daily shattered; his dog Brownie, who feeds on glue and enjoys a game in which his master plays the role of flea. Then there are neighborhood associates, made up of a varied assortment of leftover Neanderthals—plus the Archangel Michael, who drops in one day via the chimney to advise the building of an ark against the coming of a second flood; a Dutch barn...