TWO JEWS ON A TRAIN

Anecdotal tales about Eastern Europe’s Jews in the years immediately preceding WWII—many beginning (as do numerous classic Jewish jokes) with the title words. Inevitably reminiscent of Sholom Aleichem’s comic vernacular, the stories range from narrative snippets contrived to justify “snapper” endings (“The Dream,” “In New York,” “Sex”) to a handful of more fully developed pieces (notably “The Tourist” and “The Illiterate and the Ne’er-Do-Well”) and at least one classic extended gag (“History”). Somewhere between Isaac Bashevis Singer and Morey Amsterdam.