Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town

A quick read from 1912: I first read this in college, and it’s still some of the gentlest, sunniest humor I’ve seen—a literary afternoon in the park with a brass band and dogs and Frisbees.

This is a book I can safely read to my grandmother. But I still come back to it, partly because it teaches a great deal about now mostly-gone small-town lives and values (here a fictionalized prewar Orillia, Ontario) and partly because its Bernie Wooster-ish misadventures and wordplay have such a playful joy and innocence.

These are characters I’d want to have as neighbors.

As a writer with a comedic bent myself, I enjoy reading the works of other humorists, and Leacock was one of the best.

The subtlety and wit, and the clever use of the language are like a tonic. Also, as a lover of history, I appreciate the glimpse of the fictitious town of Mariposa from a bygone era.