We Are Still Married: Stories and Letters

The Wizard of Lake Woebegon here collects "in one neat pile" 10 poems and 57 prose pieces, ranging in length from less than a page to as many as 22, "written at the time of Ronald Reagan, the President who never told bad news to the American people." Selected mostly from his contributions to the New Yorker , these short works by the Minnesota humorist "who does comedy in slow motion" vary in subject matter from porches, cold, Gettysburg, yard sales, sneezes, Woodlawn Cemetery and travel notes to the fate of the last cigarette smokers in the U.S., how to write 50-word postcards gracefully, the hardships of serving in the Indiana National Guard's public information battalion and "The Meaning of Life," described as "the extreme persistence of gentleness and humor." Taken singly, the pieces amuse, bemuse or arouse; in bulk, they stand up less well, because they are repetitive and not fully developed.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Devoted friends of Lake Wobegon residents will surely welcome this opportunity to be filled in on what some of the gang has been up to and also to learn what Keillor himself has been doing and thinking since he closed down the Prairie Home Companion show in 1987. "I've been on the job and not sunning myself in Denmark," he tells us. And this new collection of 70 or so essays, stories, letters, and poems would seem to bear that out. They follow pretty closely the original Keillor recipe: a little shrewd observation, a slice of nostalgia, a dash of wit, laughter to taste, and a sprinkle of malice for piquancy. His topics are various--too various to particularize. Keillor is at his best, or his distinctive qualities have their freest scope, when he adds a touch of personal reminiscence to his themes. For discriminating palates.
- A. J. Anderson, G.S.L.I.S., Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.