Book Review
Ant Farm By SIMON RICH
Reviewed by PEGGY BARNETT
In these stressful, pre-holiday times, it may be refreshing to pick up a nice small book of quiet humor. Ant Farm is not about ants or farms; it's a book of very short sketches by a current Harvard senior that will make you chuckle, if not laugh out loud. A hazard of humorous books is that you may findyourself reading aloud to your companions.

The subtitle is "and other desperate situations." Many of the situations are presented in dialogue form. For instance, the eponymous essay is a conversation between a leader and his men. They are discouraged because they have built seven tunnels and cannot findtheir way through the glass. "What kind of God would put us here, just to torture us" Sand to the left . . . sand to the right . . ."

The premise is often in the headlines: "a conversation at the grownups' table as imagined at the kids' table;" "I can only think of two scenarios where high school math would come in handy." The first two sections deal with school-age observations. Then Rich moves on to more universal applications.

"In crayola co.," Sam is having difficultycoming up with new color names. His boss thinks it may be because of problems at home. "Some of these colors . . . Sad Blue . . . Sad Green . . . Divorce Sienna . . .

In "invisible," the narrator is regretting his condition of invisibility because it makes it hard to stay employed. "I got laid off at the museum because my tour groups kept getting lost." "When I was a lifeguard, I never got any credit for any of my heroic rescues. It was always 'angel this' and 'angel that.'"

We sympathize with Mrs. Matthews, who receives a note from Caleb's teacher. He is expressing his sympathy for the 10 funerals in three weeks that her family has experienced, according to Caleb. "I would volunteer to drop off Caleb's homework myself, but I understand that your house recently exploded."

Ant Farm is available at the Mary Willis Library.

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