GOLFING FOR CATS

Another collection of Punch columns by the author of The Sanity Inspector (p. 955). Coren leans to rather exiguous gags pursued with a dogged monotony which makes you ponder the origin of those popular superstitions about dry, understated British humor. What would Dunkirk have been like with a little more of today's class awareness? What could 1984 be like with a little of the good old British snafu tradition? What might the Canterbury Tales have been like if written at Heathrow Airport? Surprisingly, one doesn't care very much. It's hard to say exactly what it is that Coren lacks; our guess is a sense of pacing. The title--tastefully arranged on the jacket above a large swastika--is by far the funniest thing about the book.