for the lover of irony, this book represents a feast. barely a sentence goes by without a taste. add in a backdrop of world war ii and the insanity of war is palpable. from the author: ‘a million years?’ persisted the jeering old man with keen, sadistic zest. ‘a half million? the frog is is almost five hundred million years old. could you really say with much certainty that america, with all its strength and prosperity, with its fighting man man that is second to none, and with its standard of living that is the highest in the world, will last as long as . . . the frog?’