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Happy to Be Here (1981)

by Garrison Keillor

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782528,086 (3.35)12
In these reflections on our lives and times, Keillor invites readers to join The Shy Rights Movement, to drop in at The People's Shopper, and to hear the truth behind the Cinderella legend as explained in the consciousness-raised lingo of My Stepmother Myself.
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Showing 5 of 5
amusing but not his best
  ritaer | Nov 2, 2023 |
Keillor is one of those authors you either "get" or you don't. Outing myself here as one who enjoys his melancholic whimsy. ( )
  HenrySt123 | Jul 19, 2021 |
Seems as if somehow other readers want this to be, or thought it is, something other than what it is. It is not 'stories.' It is not a companion to Lake Wobegon or even to Prairie Home Companion.

It is a whole bunch of very funny essays. Most (all?) are parodies and it does help, somewhat, to recognize the assorted source materials. For example Plainfolks" is inspired by the [b:Foxfire 3 (Foxfire|156163|Foxfire 3 (Foxfire (Paperback))|Eliot Wigginton|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320390953s/156163.jpg|150697] series. And if you've never read serial comic books or pulp fiction magazines you'll not fully appreciate "Mission to Mandala." And GK isn't laughing at, but with, [a:Studs Terkel|33716|Studs Terkel|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1225511511p2/33716.jpg] and LIFE magazine when he writes "How It Was in America a Week Ago Tuesday."

Don't let me discourage you, though. With an open mind, all are enjoyable. I know there are ones I don't 'get' but I love his writing style, his gentle and affectionate wit, and I enjoyed every one - even the baseball ones. And for many the source material is not necessarily all that specific. Witness the ubiquitous attitude in the US that 'we're number one' and you'll know that GK just couldn't help but write "U.S. Still on Top, Says Rest of World."

Charming & witty, Wise & humane.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519vgDxAQcL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticke..." ( )
  Cheryl_in_CC_NV | Jun 6, 2016 |
Read during Fall 2003

Essays/Stories/News from Lake Woebegon/etc. Many laugh out loud funny. I esp. like Jack Schmidtt, Arts Administrator.
  amyem58 | Jul 14, 2014 |
An early book by Garrison Keillor, consisting mostly of humor pieces that appeared in "The New Yorker" magazine. These pieces are clever and witty and shallow, reminding me of Art Buchwald. The exceptions are three (autobiographical) stories at the end where Keillor seems to reveal a bit more of himself. I liked the baseball pieces best of the humor bits. ( )
  burnit99 | Feb 2, 2007 |
Showing 5 of 5
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In these reflections on our lives and times, Keillor invites readers to join The Shy Rights Movement, to drop in at The People's Shopper, and to hear the truth behind the Cinderella legend as explained in the consciousness-raised lingo of My Stepmother Myself.

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Garrison Keillor's comic, razor-sharp observations on America and American life have been running in THE NEW YORKER for more than ten years and on public radio for seven in his show 'A Prairie Home Companion." In that time, his skewed reflections on our lives and times, his ear for dialogue, and De Vriesian ability to penetrate unexpectedly beneath the humor and touch base with a home truth or provide a portrait of a life gone just a trifle awry have won him an enormous following.

A shamus turns arts administrator and finds it no less dangerous a game; baseball players undergo group therapy and "experience at-batness"; a pamphleteer lobbies for Shy Rights with slogans, "walk short" and "shy is beautiful, for the most part"; the lives of a Coutry and Western group become a soap opera in song on the radio, with listeners encouraged to vote on the outcome; two clergymen open up St. Paul's Episcopal Drop-In Hair Center to offer warm, supportive pre- and post-trim counseling, "and if you want to come in and just talk about haircuts, well that's cool, too"; a construction company undertakes a super-tall tower project in the town of Babel; a poet "listens to nature" and gets quite an earful back - all perfectly normal events in the extraordinary world of Garrison Keillor.
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