This is not the hilarious collection of stories that you (and definitely I) are expecting. Rather, this is an intelligent and witty writer trying all sorts of things in the realm of short fiction. This book has one-liners, one-paragraphers, one-pagers, and fifteen-pagers, all written in a similar style and most containing some sort of twist or joke. The twists and jokes aren't always hits, but some are quite funny. Despite that, I found most of his experiments to be somewhat uninteresting; it felt a lot like someone being clever and trying to "subvert" the short story genre. Or something like that. 
 Despite these complaints, I still liked the collection overall, because the longer short stories were quite good. As Novak fleshes out his situations and characters, they get more interesting, entertaining, and above all somewhat poignant, and he's well-served by his strong ability to write for characters. My favorite stories, some of which are "The Rematch," "No One Goes to Heaven to See Dan Fogelberg," "Kellogg's (or: The Last Wholesome Fantasy of the Middle-School Boy)," and "J.C. Audetat, Translator of Don Quixote" are all twenty or so pages long, and were just a joy to read. I have a soft spot for short stories; I like the emotional punch they pack in such a short amount of time, and while I know it's kind of watered down compared to a longer novel, they can still affect me. These stories, even the best ones, didn't affect me like something from, say, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, were still effective, and yes, sometimes quite funny. 
 I look forward to what Novak does next. I hope he got the experimentation out of his system; I'd love to read a collection of novellas or a full novel from him. I'd still recommend this collection; it's an interesting read, at the very least, and maybe I just wasn't smart enough to get the jokes fully or something; I wouldn't be surprised if others found it much funnier than I did.