In this way it bridges a gap from, say, a sholem aleichem to, well, the urban american jewish humor that has had such a profound influence on our culture. But beyond the satirical brilliance and nuance of this book i would like to commend it as simply enormously fun and readable. It's social vision is sophisticated and strangely contemporary and it is funny. Our main character is enormous, ridiculous, ferocious and fascinating, someone you sort of root for in a state of horror, but i love how he is not invincible, and the person to whom he is vulnerable (if you can call it that, probably it is all part of da costa's (our hero's) plans) expresses for me the touch of sweetness that just keeps the humanity of the book afloat. The story is told in tight, marvelously put together chapters that nearly stand on their own. The plot work has that wonderful tight and suprising gearlike quality that is so satisfying to read.

The Purchase of the North Pole or Topsy-Turvy (French: Sans dessus dessous) is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, published in 1889. It is the third and last novel of the Baltimore Gun Club, first appearing in From the Earth to the Moon, and later in Around the Moon, featuring the same characters but set twenty years later. Like some other books of his later years, in this novel Verne tempers his love of science and engineering with a good dose of irony about their potential for harmful abuse and the fallibility of human endeavors. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).