The Book of Guys: Stories

by Garrison Keillor

Overview

"Guys are in trouble these days," says Garrison Keillor. "Years ago, manhood was an opportunity for achievement and now it's just a problem to be overcome. Guys who once might have painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling are now just trying to be Mr. O.K. All-Rite, the man who can bake a cherry pie, be passionate in a skillful way, and yet also lift them bales and tote that barge."

This brilliant collection confirms Keillor’s reputation as an ingenious storyteller and a very funny guy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140233728
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/01/1994
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	399,868
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.71(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Garrison Keillor, author of nearly a dozen books, is founder and host of the acclaimed radio show A Prairie Home Companion and the daily program The Writer's Almanac. He is also a regular contributor to Time magazine.

Hometown:

St. Paul, Minnesota

Date of Birth:

August 7, 1942

Place of Birth:

Anoka, Minnesota

Education:

B.A., University of Minnesota, 1966

Editorial Reviews

Bewailing the lost grandeur of manhood and lambasting the half-baked perversion known as '90s man, Keillor ( Lake Woebegon Days ) brings wit, the gift of storytelling and marksmanlike satire to this collection of 22 short fictions dissecting the current predicament of ``guys.'' Invoking various archetypal guys--cowboy, sports hero, Greek god, Don Juan--he brings each into collision with contemporary values stressing sensitivity, openness, communication, monogamy, the empowerment of women and a healthy diet. The results are provocative and hilarious. Dionysus turns 50 and is forced to seek help for his sex and alcohol problems. Baseball legend Casey of Mudville is barraged with garbage at an away game. Cattleman Lonesome Shorty gives up the range to try condominium life. President George Bush goes fishing with an admiring Willie Horton while barbarians invade Chicago. Keillor takes delicious swipes at the media, fad causes, political correctness and American tabloid culture as he convincingly sketches the precarious state of his fellow males, longing for the days when they could just be guys. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In his latest book (after WLT: A Radio Romance , Viking, 1991), Keillor displays his offbeat humor and quirky worldview in 22 stories fashioned around male characters. Many of the tales feature cultural icons wrenched from their usual haunts and forced to live in the present: hedonistic Dionysus suddenly faces middle age; Don Giovanni philosophizes on marriage to Figaro as he works the ivories in a piano bar; Earl Grey overcomes his anonymity as a middle child and builds a tea empire. Others feature George Bush, Norman Conquest, and Casey at bat in a road game. Although each tale depends on a gimmick, Keillor usually makes them work. A few of the stories are flat, lacking the enhancement of the author's deadpan vocal delivery, but most are pretty funny, and a few are even touching. Buy wherever Keillor is popular. Previewed in Prepub Alert, 7/93.-- A.J. Wright, Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham

Library Journal

More from the master of the broadcast memoir (WLT, 1991; We Are Still Married, 1989; etc.). Keillor's attentions in this outing are loosely concentrated on the plight of the semi-competent male in today's world of can-do ladies. The 23 items (five previously published) in this latest collection include the other team's view of "Casey At the Bat (Road Game)"; a modern myth about "Zeus the Lutheran" and a pastor's wife; a very amusing high-school anecdote ("Gary Keillor"); a sendup of men's movement nonsense ("Address to the National Federation of Associations..."); a sharp smack at the TV talk shows ("The Chuck Show of Television"); one of the best letters-to-the-editor of recent times ("That Old Picayune Moon"); some business with "Don Giovanni"; and an updated fable of the "Country Mouse and the City Mouse." Liberal as public radio may be, there are still some words you can't say, so Keillor can be a little sharper in print than his listeners may be used to. Some of the pieces ("Buddy the Leper" and "Roy Bradley, Boy Broadcaster") cry out for commercial breaks. The shorter pieces ("The Mid-Life Crisis of Dionysus," "Omoo the Wolf Boy") do better, but even at his windiest, Keillor is more talented at the Thurber business than anybody since. Quite good. You don't have to be a radio fan to enjoy. You do have to be literate.

Kirkus Reviews