I began reading I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume today. It is a collection of shorts told from the perspective of a cat. And each of the shorts sort of poke fun and analyze people (at least of that time and area) in a way that only a cat could. All the shorts together make for a long read at a little over 600 pages. And even the newest of these stories is about a hundred years old.
So it is a bit intimidating, but so far so good.
So far I can say this book is very much a satire. A few of the funny bits have gone over my head and it takes me a moment to really get the joke sometimes This is very much academic humor. With some obscure references (for me, probably not so much for experts on 1900's Japan). If you find the stupid things smart people do to look smart in the eyes of other smart people then you will find the humor in this book agreeable. The cat sees these things and reports it in very dry, often condescending manner.