The Book of Guys by Garrison Keillor Faber $255 MIDDLE-AGE doesn't suit Garrison Keillor. The prairie philosopher and much-feted humourist has long used the slight sense of impending doom that goes with being fortysomething to add an extra dimension to his highly amusing tales of life in middle, largely rural, and often middle-aged America.
Keillor is a radio man. For 15 years his show, A Prairie Home Companion, has been broadcast to the Mid-West. The books it spawned, especially Lake Wobegon Days, offered a style that easily transferred to the written page, to a wider audience, national celebrity and comparisons with Thurber.
Now Keillor has turned 50 and the bewilderment with life always present in his writing has come out full force in The Book of Guys.
The wit and sparkle are still there; some of these 21 essays are as funny as anything you will read today. But, with the helplessness of the American baby-boomer male as his theme, there is an edge here that is unmistakable.
Keillor believes his sex is in trouble and there is precious little we can do about it.
''Girls had it good,'' he writes in his introduction. ''They got to stay indoors. Boys ran around in the yard with toy guns going kksshh-kksshh, fighting wars for made-up reasons, while girls played with dolls, creating complex family groups and learninghow to solve problems through negotiation and role playing.