Books: The Virtue of Vice

THE TUNNEL OF LOVE (246 pp.)—Peter De Vries—Little, Brown ($3.50).

The pun is widely regarded as the lowest form of humor. This judgment may or may not have been circulated by people who themselves can never think of a pun until they are driving home after the party. The fact is that punsters have gone underground—at least as far as polite literature is concerned. Among the U.S. writers, there must be a vast reservoir of pent-up puns, just waiting for the signal to burst out into the open. That heady day may be at hand.

The conductor and narrator of this particular trip...