It is Paasilinna’s gift in this gem of a novel (in Will Hobson’s pellucid translation from the French of Anne Colin du Terrail) to wring humor from the most desperate of circumstances.

pellucid (adj) 1: transmitting light; able to be seen through with clarity 2: (of language) transparently clear; easily understandable [syn: limpid, lucid, luculent, crystal clear, perspicuous] – Call of the Wild