In Candide, published in 1759, Voltaire’s characters endure syphilis, enslavement, near-drowning, a catastrophic earthquake, the forced removal of one buttock, and the loss of treasured pet sheep. None of this shakes the title character’s optimism. Candide, “a youth whom nature had endowed with a most sweet disposition,” believes, as does his mentor Pangloss, that theirs is “the best of all possible worlds.” Voltaire’s modus operandi was to skewer the chipper tenets of philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), who believed our planet, made by God, to be an inherently good and reasonable place.

Candide is a cheeky book, and admirably so. The same can be said of David Allan Cates’s X Out of Wonderland: A Saga, a modern adaptation of Voltaire’s satire. Wonderland is well-served by its brevity (152 pages) and by Cates’ buoyant, insightful prose. This is humor that stings a little, and the author’s observations are funny and fine-tuned throughout.

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—Lara Tupper