For the late Fuad I Khuri a distinguished career as an anthropologist began not because of typical concerns like accessibility money or status but because the very idea of an occupation that baffled his countrymen made themOCoand himOColaugh OC When I tell them that OCyanthropologyOCO is my profession they think I am either speaking a strange language or referring to a new medicine OCO This profound appreciation for humor especially in the contradictions inherent in the study of cultures is a distinctive theme of An Invitation to Laughter KhuriOCOs astute memoir of life as an anthropologist in the Middle East A Christian Lebanese Khuri offers up in this unusual autobiography both an insiderOCOs and an outsiderOCOs perspective on life in Lebanon elsewhere in the Middle East and in West Africa Khuri entertains and informs with clever insights into such issues as the mentality of Arabs toward women eating habits of the Arab world the impact of Islam on West Africa and the extravagant lifestyles of wealthy Arabs and even offers a vision for a type of democracy that could succeed in the Middle East In his life and work as these astonishing essays make evident Khuri demonstrated how the discipline of anthropology continues to make a difference in bridging dangerous divides