The Ayatollah and I

Khorsandi, an Iranian emigre living in London since 1979, publishes Asghar Agha, a satirical journal about the Islamic Republic, from which this collection of political humor derives. Some of the pieces are ""school essays'' by the seemingly simple-minded Sadeq Sedaqat, a kind of Iranian Private Chonkin, who writes, for example: ``One type of spring is `the Spring of Freedom,' which is the season when they close down newspapers and shut down magazines and strangle journalists. In this season truncheons grow by the sides of brooks and bearded nightingales sit on branches and in this season trees are rejuvenated and they tie the Kurds to the trees and shoot them.'' There are also ``interviews'' with Iranian citizens, takeoffs on the diaries of former president Bani-Sadr (which were published in newspapers), parodies of government proclamations, fake news stories, statements by the zealots in powerall of which are masterful, sad portrayals of a crazy, terrifying society. This book ranks with the best of Soviet and Eastern European dissident wit. (October)