Synopses & Reviews
An eclectic collection of essays that offer a shot of clarity and wisdom — or just an honest laugh
Garrison Keillor is famous as the host of the radio show A Prairie Home Companion, now in its twenty-seventh year and heard by more than four million listeners each week. His most recent Lake Wobegon novel, Pontoon, was an instant New York Times bestseller that received phenomenal reviews from coast to coast. And he's become the arbiter of fine American poetry through the Good Poems series and as the voice of The Writer's Almanac. But Keillor's sharpest insights and sense of humor shine through most brilliantly in his essays.
Culled from his syndicated newspaper column, "The Old Scout," and pieces written for Time magazine and The Atlantic Monthly among others, The Keillor Reader will be embraced by readers who fell in love with Alice through Calvin Trillin's memoirs, laughed out loud with David Sedaris in Me Talk Pretty One Day, or winced knowingly as they read I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron. The perfect gift, The Keillor Reader is chock full of notions about how to navigate life's murkier waters, all told with the bracing wit and beautiful turns of phrase that only this literary-minded Midwesterner can deliver.
Review
“Heir to Mark Twain, James Thurber and E. B. White, Keillor offers more than laconic, sometimes-rueful, reports from the fictional Midwestern town of Lake Wobegon. Besides selected Prairie Home Companion monologues — written in an adrenaline rush on the morning of each show — this collection contains poetry, fiction and assorted essays, each introduced by autobiographical musings....Lovely.” Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Stories, essays, poems, and personal reminiscences from the sage of Lake Wobegon
When, at thirteen, he caught on as a sportswriter for the Anoka Herald, Garrison Keillor set out to become a professional writer, and so he has done a storyteller, sometime comedian, essayist, newspaper columnist, screenwriter, poet. Now a single volume brings together the full range of his work: monologues from A Prairie Home Companion, stories from The New Yorker and The Atlantic, excerpts from novels, newspaper columns. With an extensive introduction and headnotes, photographs, and memorabilia, The Keillor Reader also presents pieces never before published, including the essays Cheerfulness” and What We Have Learned So Far.”
Keillor is the founder and host of A Prairie Home Companion, celebrating its fortieth anniversary in 2014. He is the author of nineteen books of fiction and humor, the editor of the Good Poems collections, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
About the Author
Garrison Keillor is the founder and host of A Prairie Home Companion, celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2014. He is the author of nineteen books of fiction and humor, the editor of the Good Poems collections, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A Minnesota native, he lives in St. Paul and New York City.