"Combining a career in live radio performances and equally lively short story writing for the New Yorker, Garrison Keillor has continually charmed fans and readers with his homespun wit and warmth. While acknowledging his career highlights, this full-length critical study supports Keillor's own view of himself as writer rather than performer by examining his literary accomplishments and giving serious analysis of his fictional works. In order to understand his tremendous popular appeal, Songer situates Keillor within the rich literary heritage associated with American humorists such a Mark Twain, James Thurber and Will Rogers. This volume treats each collection of stories as a cohesive literary entity, from the early works Happy to Be Here and Lake Wobegon Days, whose familiar characters concerned themselves with social pressures and teenage angst, to The Book of Guys, which wryly examines the pitfalls of the modern male experience. In analyzing Keillor's most recent work, the novel Wobegon Boy, Songer explores Keillor's humorous handling of real life lessons to be learned from the small town legacy. "--BOOK JACKET.