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Synopsis

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The author, Takashi Hayasaka, visited most of the world's areas of conflict as a journalist: the Middle East, Eastern Europe, the former republics of the Soviet Union and Asia. There, he saw people oppressed and harassed, often living in danger of their lives, but there was always laughter. Hayasaka came to believe that laughter is just as essential to life as water or food. Laughter cures, liberates and empowers people. In this book, he offers us the fruits of his life-work of collecting jokes from all over the world, showing the indomitable vitality of the human spirit, and the big part jokes play in it.

Submitted by Takako Iwaki

Category Level

Humor

Editorial Review

This is a unique collection of jokes: jokes from areas in conflict. One striking characteristic of the jokes in this book is that they mock the oppressor. By making fun of a communist or a military regime, people undermine the constraints imposed on them by force. Another thing is that they laugh at themselves. When they are discriminated against or when their country is hopelessly underdeveloped, they make jokes about themselves and laugh away the harsh reality. What runs through the jokes is people's indomitable spirit. We hear stories of unimaginable horror in the news, and see its proof in photographs, every day. Faced with the reality of human atrocity, it feels as if there is nothing we can do to change this world. Hayasaka sought out these places where humanity is most violently attacked, and found something else there. Smiles and laughter, The will to live. The world will be a better place when we can all share the same jokes.

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Chapter 1: The Middle East
• Chapter 2: The former republics of the Soviet Union
• Chapter 3: The Eastern Europe
• Chapter 4: Jokes by Peoples without Countries
• Chapter 5: Asia
• Afterword

About the Author

Takashi Hayasaka was born in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, in 1973. He is a journalist and has travelled all over the world, mainly in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. He won the 12th Weekly Friday Reportage Award with "The Landscape of People Living Underground: The Record of Romanian Manhole People" in 2002. The revised edition, "The Record of Romanian Manhole People" became a bestseller. Other works include "Iraq Up Close: People under the Saddam Hussein Regime," and "Why I Became a Pilgrim."
http://www011.upp.so-net.ne.jp/dighaya/