A Mixed Bag

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Humor. Music. Of all of Raymond Smullyan's many books, A MIXED BAG: JOKES, PUZZLES, RIDDLES AND MEMORABILIA perhaps best captures the timeless delight of the casual conversation of this American polymath. A seamless continuum of jokes, stories, puzzles, and reflections, caught in an deliciously unpremeditated arc that nonetheless is remarkably cohesive, it is sparkling and charming proof that cheerfulness need not be incompatible with intelligence, nor pleasure with wisdom.