The Book Of Guys

Stories

Plot

Lonesome Shorty sits by the campfire on the western plains and draws up a list, "Reasons to Be or Not to Be a Cowboy". Al Denny, author of "Rebirthing the Me You Used to Be", looks at himself in a hotel room mirror and sees a big shambling galoot who can't remember his own address. Dionysus, the god of wine, goes into treatment. Buddy, the son of missionaries, catches a bad case of leprosy and must return to South Dakota. Earl Grey, despite his fame and fortune as a tea developer, cannot shake the depression that comes from having been a middle child. Zeus takes the form of a Lutheran in order to satisfy his lust and then is trapped. Casey comes up to bat for Mudville in a road game in Dustburg, whose fans despise him. As Garrison Keillor says,'Guys are in trouble these days. Years ago, manhood was an opportunity for actievement and now it is a problem to be overcome. Guys who once might have painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or composed "Don Giovanni" are now just trying to be Mr. O.K. All-Rite, the man who can bake a cherry pie, converse easily about intimate things, cry, be vulnerable, be passionate in a skillful way, and yet also be the guy who lifts them bales and totes that barge. "Being all-rite is the wrong way to spend your life. Guys are meant to be lovers and artists and adventurers, meant to be noble and free-ranging, bold, prosperous, good-humored, audacious. So it's time for guys to free themselves from women, let women deal with their own lives, and stop feeling guilty. It's time for women to take over the world so that guys can do this." Millions know Garrison Keillor as a gifted storyteller. "The Book of Guys" is Keillor's deepest venture into satire and his funniest book yet.