Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #666136 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 375 pages

Synopsis
A collection of wryly humorous stories of love lost and found, sharp-eyed comments on society and the media, letters on marriage and fatherhood, and reflections on cigarette smoking, baseball, the perils of near-sightedness, the art of sitting, and how to write a letter if you're shy.

Customer Reviews

Disappointing Collection
Fans of Garrison Keillor's "Lake Wobegon" tales may well be disappointed by this ragtag collection of essays, poems and stories. It appears that Keillor's bottom drawer has been cleared out and pressed into service by Faber and Faber to provide a stopgap measure until the next bona fide book about the immensely popular Midwest town.

A lot of the entries here are just plain bizarre or pointless. If you manage to get through 'Pieces' and 'The Lake', then admittedly some of the letters and poems are very funny indeed. The closing section - stories - contain some passable (if unsubtle) satires. But there is no obvious theme to the collection, nor any kind of link between pieces. It is the sort of book that is usually rushed out after a writer's death in order to cash in on morbid interest created by his demise. But, as far as I know, Keillor is very much alive.

Barely a quarter of the contents are blessed with the author's dry, acerbic wit, and the reader has to wade through endless baseball stories and punchline-free shaggy dog stories to hit the occasional pot of gold. Faber's motivation in publishing this volume is obvious - to keep the Keillor bandwagon rolling along - but in disappointing loyal fans and alienating new ones, their plan may well backfire.