English Majors

by Garrison Keillor

Skits and bits from "A Prairie Home Companion" celebrate the secret society of men and women who possess excellent spelling and punctuation skills.
ENGLISH MAJORS. You know who you are and here is a double-CD celebrating the secret society of those who, though they may be chauffeuring kids to swim lessons or writing Unix programs or frying cheeseburgers, still could, if need be, write a term paper on the water imagery in "The Waste Land."
Includes the "Six-Minute Hamlet," the "Ten-Minute MacBeth," tributes to Hawthorne and Kerouac and Emily Dickinson, a Guy Noir adventure that exposes an M.F.A. scam, the Ballad of John Henry ('John Henry was an English major and poetry was his line. He sat by the window with his yellow legal pad and he wrote one sentence at a time.'), and more.
With guest appearances by Allen Ginsberg, Billy Collins, Roy Blount Jr., Robert Bly, Donald Hall, and Calvin Trillin.

Genres: Humor, Audiobook, Nonfiction, Books About Books, Poetry, Short Stories, Comedy

1 pages, Audio CD

First published March 4, 2008

About the author

Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion (called Garrison Keillor's Radio Show in some international syndication), which he hosted from 1974 to 2016. Keillor created the fictional Minnesota town Lake Wobegon, the setting of many of his books, including Lake Wobegon Days and Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories. Other creations include Guy Noir, a detective voiced by Keillor who appeared in A Prairie Home Companion comic skits. Keillor is also the creator of the five-minute daily radio/podcast program The Writer's Almanac, which pairs poems of his choice with a script about important literary, historical, and scientific events that coincided with that date in history.
In November 2017, Minnesota Public Radio cut all business ties with Keillor after an allegation of inappropriate behavior with a freelance writer for A Prairie Home Companion. On April 13, 2018, MPR and Keillor announced a settlement that allows archives of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac to be publicly available again, and soon thereafter, Keillor began publishing new episodes of The Writer's Almanac on his website. He also continues to tour a stage version of A Prairie Home Companion, although these shows are not broadcast by MPR or American Public Media.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

If it were possible, I would probably give this about three and a half stars, which is a bit on the low side considering the high esteem in which I hold Keillor. The fact of the matter is that the individual tracks on this CD collection vary quite a bit in terms of content and style, and while some were hilarious, such as the humorous anecdotes and literary parodies, other parts were baffling or just plain depressing.

I recently majored in English, and I can certainly relate to most of his English-related humor. For example, this collection parodies classic literature: plays, poetry, and even a song. It also entertains with anecdotes of an English major's career, which includes, in this case, fast food (ha-ha). But there were some portions of the collection that seemed only tangentially related to the topic; that is, while the concept of writing was involved, neither writing nor humor was the focus. For example, there is a really depressing vignette about a pregnant teenager whose parents will disown her if she doesn't marry, but who is acutely aware of the sorrow and pain that such a marriage will bring. As she prepares for the big event, she is surrounded by aged married women telling her that marriage won't be that bad. Ouch. I know that Garrison Keillor doesn't always have happy endings, and I know, of course, that he often uses a measure of angst and a great deal of realism (and I would argue that realism is important and that GK generally uses it skillfully and to great effect) but this was just depressing as all get-out, even for him.

Do you see this? I'm an English major reduced to using phrases like "all get-out"!

Still, what's funny in this collection is very funny indeed. I particularly enjoyed the three(!) Shakespeare parodies.

[Dorothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure I have read this before but it must have been a long time ago since none of it had stayed in my mind. The quality is uneven, some skits working better than others and it is perhaps a bit dated. The 10 minute Hamlet, and the 10 minute MacBeth (starring Julia Child and Mr Rogers as the murdering couple) are brilliant.

[Mayda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This audio book is a mixture of some really funny skits and some others that leave me wondering how they made the cut. But still, it’s Garrison Keillor, so how can you not want to listen to it? Just don’t expect Keillor at his best, because this isn’t it. A great topic for comedy, this rendition of English Majors gets a B-minus.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

In typical, self-deprecating style, Garrison Keillor makes fun of my chosen major and profession. You don't have to be an English Major to laugh at this, but it helps. Some of the humor is pretty exclusive to understanding texts, criticism and, well, English-majorism, but the majority of this is just good humor.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection didn't live up to its full potential, but it was still very entertaining. Keillor's Guy Noir and Lake Wobegon were amusing as always. I've definitely heard better abridged Shakespeare routines, but Mister Rogers as Macbeth was real genius. My favorite pieces were "The Lanyard" and "Family Man," which admittedly didn't have much to do with English. Not a bad way to pass 2 hours though, and I do love when a man knows how to wield "whom."

[Cathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed that several of the bits had only a tenuous link to language or literature, seemingly included only to make the collection a marketable length. Still, there are gems. The opening sketch with Keillor and Dave Barry is highly entertaining, and the Shakespeare bits are among the strongest -- at least in the opinion of this English major.

[Jennifer Navarrete · Rating 4 out of 5]

All English majors and those who love us should listen to this compilations. There were sections that made me literally laugh out loud (10-minute Macbeth, 6-minute Hamlet, the tale of the burger joint English major, Guy Noir). Then there were other sections that really just seemed like filler. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy them; they just seemed misplaced under the title.

[JZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Put together much like a performance of APHC, these poems, essays, and critiques flow along pretty well. It was a revelation to me how much writing Garrison has done over the years, and how very good he is. The 10-minute Shakespeare skits were my favorites.

Sly, tongue-in-cheek, serious, humorous, and downright funny. It's all here.

[Kynan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny collection of skits from Keillor's Prarie Home radio shows. Highlights include The Lanyard, Six-Minute Hamlet, The Scarlet Letter, For Whom and English Majors. These include Keillors friends Dave Barry, Billy Collins, Calvin Trillin and Meryl Streep. Worth the listening time.

[Kiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a treat. Highlights for me: the 6-minute Hamlet. Billy Collins doing ANYTHING.

Additional highlights from disc 2: Kerouac. Calvin Trillin. Garrison doing a Lake Wobegon piece.

This was a quick listen, and entirely enjoyable.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun to listen to with your sweetie while knitting (me) and leathercraft ( him) on a dark, rainy, cold. January Sunday afternoon in NW PA My favorite story was the last. Helen Marie was a cousing I think I knew. The Scarlett Letter was also a hoot.

[Leslie (updates on SG) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun but uneven collection of skits, most of them related to books and/or writers. My favorite bits were the Ten-Minute Macbeth featuring Mr. Rogers and Julia Child, and Garrison Keillor playing a English major fast-food worker who corrects the grammar of customers.

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twenty-0ne different tracks - almost like essays. Really enjoyed some (the first one with Dave Barry, For Whom?) and enjoyed some less. Glad I experienced it. Not a huge PHC fan but I have always liked listening to Keillor. Two CD's - listened to one and saved the second one as a bird in the hand.

[Reader2007 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great...

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a great deal. Garrison Keillor is a favorite of mine.
The Lanyard was my favorite piece.

[Nicola (Niki) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious. Great for car trips.

[Lowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite humorist and each tale from Lake Wobegon is fun and causes me to laugh. Give me more.

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable and quick. No heavy lifting. Just what I needed.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too funny! As a prospective English major, I found this all very light and interesting :)

[Nita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I laughed out loud.

[Jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're an English major of any kind, you'll get a kick out of these little skits/short stories/poems. Some of them had me laughing out loud in my car ^_^

[Janell · Rating 3 out of 5]

All manner of hilarity ensues when Garrison Keillor and Dave Barry team up!
A great, light-hearted book for the holiday season.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, it's more of a one star for me, but the difference there is really personal taste, I think, so I'm being generous. The expectation was for humor, of which there is actually quite little. There are two readings of famous poems that aren't anything different than if some random person read them. There are three? tracks that are basically the same mediocre jokes about Hamlet. The first track is mildly amusing, the last one a decent story, and overall it's just meh. I'm mostly glad it was short!

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun audio CD to listen to! It includes a couple of "short" Shakespeare plays, some comedy about English majors, some spoken poetry, some poetry set to music, and a Prairie Home Companion story or two!

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is supposed to be humorous?

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very minor investment of time, so I can't feel too cheated, but I was expecting more laughs. This collection of vignettes from A Prairie Home Companion touted itself as being for the highly literate fast food worker (i.e., English majors). There were funny parts, but not enough. Some of it was pretty dumb. Also, Roy Blount Jr. had a track, and since I reserve a special ire for him, Keillor and crew should consider themselves lucky that I listened at all.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

the front lines of sensibility, know disillusionment as voted for democrats, humor and dumbness, do chickens have boogers, dogs in poetry cats in prose, who and whom.

[Daniel Currie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best collection I've heard from APHC. There is some funny stuff, of course, but a bit too many not-so-funny tracks included, in my opinion.

[Rachel Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to finish this book, but the audiobook version of this from the library WOULD NOT stop skipping. This was rather disappointing :(

[Ken Ronkowitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

comic relief for the highly literate