As someone who's not easily amused...I was in helpless laughter reading this; it's up there with Confederacy of Dunces as funniest book ever.
Set in middle class US suburbia, it concerns a group of neighbors meeting up for dinner - a childless couple; a flirtatious widow; and the superb Delahanty family: overbearing authoritarian Dad, overweight Mom, unfailingly sweet natured, boring Grandma...and two hefty "stalwart" teen boys - quashed unmercifully at home, but getting (covertly) into pot-smoking.. As the childless wife falls prey to alcohol and finds herself in a mental health unit, we meet another gaggle of splendid characters. But what's happening back home while she's locked up?
It's quite wonderful- I loved his "Alfred and Guinevere" too.

"Miss Pride, who was young and easily cowed, went off to help an advanced senility case with the finger paints." (I'm laughing so much it's hard to type!)
Though my stand-out character MUST be granny Biddy:
Responding to her D-I-L's throwaway comment, "I'll bet a nickle she's already dusting" with a sententious"I won't take you up on your bet because I never gamble."
A relentless crocheter, we have such gems as ""Roses, the queen of flowers". She shook out the crocheted maroon throw, so all could see it. "Isnt this just the color of an American Beauty?" It wasnt, but if anyone knew it, no one said it."
And ""She was adding a scalloped border to the throw she had crocheted. Biddy's Christmas offerings were as predictable as her tireless hook, and some friends felt decidedly over-stocked."
Just sublime! ( )

The dark and oddly distant style of this satire comes across as a literary version of the TV show Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which aired roughly around the same era. ( )