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Happy to Be Here
“Keillor’s best stuff is clean (in the sense that lines are clean), down to earth, exquisitely good-hearted, highly ludicrous, and as labored as nitrous oxide…. This book will either leave you dumbfounded or happy — almost deservedly happy — to be anywhere” —The New York Times Book Review “His humor is cerebral and complex, a blend of romance and nostalgia; it sparklingly parodies the American (and human) condition…. His stories and satires glow with a sense of time and place.” —The Washington Post
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
14 people are currently reading
323 people want to read
About the author
Garrison Keillor
281 books845 followersGary 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
August 29, 2019
I know Garrison Keillor is out of favor these days, but I was a devoted Woebegone fan and read quite a few of his books in my teens as well. I remember liking this one.
September 21, 2012
I so wanted to like all of this book, but some of it is self-indulgent and badly in need of a blue pencil. He does have a tendency to rattle on forever past the point where the point was made, and after a while it seems amateurish and high-schoolish. The concise bits were much better than the ones that seemed to go on and on and on. I think at this stage in his life Keillor was still rebelling against a lot of his early life and needed to shock people a little bit, and possibly he did here - but those pieces just seemed like rehashes of other, better works by other people.
He developed much more, and was more succinct, later on with "Lake Woebegone Days," "Leaving Home," and some of his later novels.
He developed much more, and was more succinct, later on with "Lake Woebegone Days," "Leaving Home," and some of his later novels.
April 23, 2020
Personally, I felt there were too many baseball stories. After reading two in a row, I skipped the rest. What I did read was entertaining enough. The stories are relatively quick and enjoyable.
February 27, 2018
A pretty good laugh, I think
Well, that fellow Keillor is a fairly sharp cookie. He's got what most of those political characters don't---his finger on the pulse of middle America. Of course, I'm referring to big shots, top bananas, fat cats, football stars, Lexus drivers, idols of stage and screen or people with 2,096 friends on Facebook. They live different lives altogether. No, I mean your average American like Joe Sixpack or Kellie Sewall who lives just down the street here in town. She certainly knows a writer when she finds one. Mr. Keillor is quite humorous and sometimes displays a a rare sense of earnest whimsy---or would that be "whimsical earnestness"? I'm not one of your top writers, I guess, though my mom would have loved me to be one. I don't really know. But Mr. Keillor certainly gets into all the nooks and crannies of the vast panorama that is your daily American life away from New York Timesville and outside the Beltway. He just has a knack for it, I guess, and he has talent too. Of course, if you're going to read this selection from cover to cover---and I always read each book cover to cover---my mom taught us to do that---"Don't give up easily", she told us, "it might turn out to be good later"---anyway, if you persevere, you may find that this book of his is a bit like avocado dip. A little goes a long way. Sure, you could space your readings out and take more time to savor each chapter. Some people like to do that. But not me, because of my mom. A few stories in here contain pathos, others bring out nostalgia for an America before Internet, cell phones, and reality TV, when people actually spoke to each other, had meetings, ate dinners in public halls, and travelled on trains. But you can't stop progress, as they say.
I would like to finish my review by saying that if you've ever listened to "Prairie Home Companion" or read any Lake Wobegon stories, you'll certainly like this book. Most of Keillor's books are above average just like the kids in his hometown. They belong to a genre that's slightly apart from what is usually thought of as "literature". That's why I haven't given it more stars.
Anyway, if you didn't like those other things, then I guess you'd better read something else. That's life, I suppose.
Well, that fellow Keillor is a fairly sharp cookie. He's got what most of those political characters don't---his finger on the pulse of middle America. Of course, I'm referring to big shots, top bananas, fat cats, football stars, Lexus drivers, idols of stage and screen or people with 2,096 friends on Facebook. They live different lives altogether. No, I mean your average American like Joe Sixpack or Kellie Sewall who lives just down the street here in town. She certainly knows a writer when she finds one. Mr. Keillor is quite humorous and sometimes displays a a rare sense of earnest whimsy---or would that be "whimsical earnestness"? I'm not one of your top writers, I guess, though my mom would have loved me to be one. I don't really know. But Mr. Keillor certainly gets into all the nooks and crannies of the vast panorama that is your daily American life away from New York Timesville and outside the Beltway. He just has a knack for it, I guess, and he has talent too. Of course, if you're going to read this selection from cover to cover---and I always read each book cover to cover---my mom taught us to do that---"Don't give up easily", she told us, "it might turn out to be good later"---anyway, if you persevere, you may find that this book of his is a bit like avocado dip. A little goes a long way. Sure, you could space your readings out and take more time to savor each chapter. Some people like to do that. But not me, because of my mom. A few stories in here contain pathos, others bring out nostalgia for an America before Internet, cell phones, and reality TV, when people actually spoke to each other, had meetings, ate dinners in public halls, and travelled on trains. But you can't stop progress, as they say.
I would like to finish my review by saying that if you've ever listened to "Prairie Home Companion" or read any Lake Wobegon stories, you'll certainly like this book. Most of Keillor's books are above average just like the kids in his hometown. They belong to a genre that's slightly apart from what is usually thought of as "literature". That's why I haven't given it more stars.
Anyway, if you didn't like those other things, then I guess you'd better read something else. That's life, I suppose.
January 9, 2020
I quite liked the book, but I didn't love it like I love his radio work and Lake Wobegon Days. His whimsical style reminds me a little of the English humourist and "Observer" columnist Paul Jennings, who was active mainly n the 1950s and 1960s - his series of collections of "Observer" columns such as "Oddly Enough", "Even Oddlier" and "Oddly Bodlikins" are well worth snapping up if you see them in a second-hand bookshop. But I digress.
My favourite pieces in this book are in fact the three short pieces referred to in the blurb. "Shy Rights: Why Not Pretty Soon?" is a clarion call against the discrimination experienced by shy people (if "clarion call" and "discrimination" are not too harsh a way of putting it, I mean I don't want to put anyone's back up...). "My Stepmother, Myself"takes three cases of alleged cruelty by stepmothers and, in first-person narratives by the so-called victims known here only by their first names "Snow", "Gretel" and "Cinderella", the balance is redressed and the stepmothers emerge as strong, mature and empathic women; perhaps even early feminist icons. "The People's Shopper" takes a quick look at examples of the co-operative movement such as St Paul's Episcopal Drop-In Hair Center where trained barbers Rev. Ray and Rev. Don offer "warm, supportive pre- and post-trim counseling" and the staff at the Universal Joint Garage & Body Shop will take all the time in the world to help the customer get as high as they are, so they can all sit around "listening to the leak in the air-hose and really 'digging' it" and get rid of "all that linear crap" about "fixing" things.
My favourite pieces in this book are in fact the three short pieces referred to in the blurb. "Shy Rights: Why Not Pretty Soon?" is a clarion call against the discrimination experienced by shy people (if "clarion call" and "discrimination" are not too harsh a way of putting it, I mean I don't want to put anyone's back up...). "My Stepmother, Myself"takes three cases of alleged cruelty by stepmothers and, in first-person narratives by the so-called victims known here only by their first names "Snow", "Gretel" and "Cinderella", the balance is redressed and the stepmothers emerge as strong, mature and empathic women; perhaps even early feminist icons. "The People's Shopper" takes a quick look at examples of the co-operative movement such as St Paul's Episcopal Drop-In Hair Center where trained barbers Rev. Ray and Rev. Don offer "warm, supportive pre- and post-trim counseling" and the staff at the Universal Joint Garage & Body Shop will take all the time in the world to help the customer get as high as they are, so they can all sit around "listening to the leak in the air-hose and really 'digging' it" and get rid of "all that linear crap" about "fixing" things.
July 30, 2017
Based on other reviews I think folks are not reading this book with the right pair of inexpensive reading glasses. One reviewer compares Keillor's short stories unfavorably with those of Salinger, as if a comic piece on a Midwestern private eye turned arts administrator had its sights aimed at the same target as J.D.
That said, reading the book in the 21st century has its downsides. Section 3 included the most timely essays, and is therefore now the most dated. Section 2 is all about baseball and is skippable unless you play in or stare at outfields. Section 4 is more personal stories and essays and fares pretty well if you're interested in the Keillor shtick.
It's the first section that nails it though - classic Keillor Midwestern Americana. The book is worth a read for this part alone. It is funny, full of nostalgia and pathos, effortlessly witty.
That said, reading the book in the 21st century has its downsides. Section 3 included the most timely essays, and is therefore now the most dated. Section 2 is all about baseball and is skippable unless you play in or stare at outfields. Section 4 is more personal stories and essays and fares pretty well if you're interested in the Keillor shtick.
It's the first section that nails it though - classic Keillor Midwestern Americana. The book is worth a read for this part alone. It is funny, full of nostalgia and pathos, effortlessly witty.
December 9, 2021
Found this hidden gem recently, and bought it for the cover to be honest (I have the one with Garrison Keillor on the front cover). Parts of this book were laugh out loud funny, with some more serious quips included. A series of short stories, and you're never quite sure what type of story you were going to be reading next. I learnt a little something new about many topics, from the first years of radios and trains to punk rock bands and learning not to drown.
October 30, 2022
If you expect the short stories in this collection to be outdated since they were written around 1970, you'd be wrong. The humor transcends time. Garrison Keillor is a very clever man. I enjoyed The Slim Graves Show, Plainfolks, Your Wedding and You, How it Was in America a Week Ago Tuesday, WLT (The Edgar Era), and Shy Rights: Why Not Pretty Soon? Mission to Mandala missed the mark for me.
A nice grouping of short stories, most of which could be considered flash fiction. Lovely.
A nice grouping of short stories, most of which could be considered flash fiction. Lovely.
July 7, 2019
A great start to Keillor’s long bibliography, three dozen short stories in several different styles and genres. It all seems so effortless but of course it’s not, so the enjoyment just increases as each new take on life (mostly Midwestern) gets down to the basics of growing up, Washington politics, baseball or old-time radio. Good stuff.
June 22, 2020
A collection of not-Lake Wobegon stories published in 1981. Old radio in Minneapolis; softball; a private eye turned art administrator; a foray into science fiction; other quirkiness, some good, some hilarious, some almost to stupid to read.
October 16, 2023
I enjoyed him on the radio, but reading his odd essays did not amuse me at all. Some of them had no point that I could see, and I believe I only truly laughed once. I laugh more often when reading Jane Austen!
February 23, 2025
This collection was such a mixed bag for me and I am a huge Garrison Keillor fan. Some stories were absolutely wonder, I laughed out loud. Others I wasn't sure what to make of them and in places I hate to say it but I skimmed a bit.
January 29, 2019
Went old-school, and was not sure at first. Really enjoyed it though. Read it cover to cover. Extremely funny when you stop and think he made pretty much all these stories up!
November 18, 2020
I did get a couple of chuckles from these pages but not nearly what I have come to expect.
January 3, 2021
Read in 1991. Collection of short stories.
June 9, 2022
Humorous. Kept think abut the fact that this was apparently his first book and he was still honing his style and craft.
June 25, 2022
Hit or miss short stories from the Lake Wobegon wordsmith.
Hit: How It Was in America a Week Ago Tuesday.
Miss: Nana Hami Ba Reba
Meh: Don, The True Story Of A Young Person
Hit: How It Was in America a Week Ago Tuesday.
Miss: Nana Hami Ba Reba
Meh: Don, The True Story Of A Young Person
June 29, 2022
Keillor's best work is a joy, this was an unfunny slog.
December 29, 2024
Great book!! Excellent writing!!
May 1, 2025
A little bit all over the place with nothing with any real substance until the last chapter.
Want to read
May 13, 2025Cutting is for My Stepmother, Myself
By Garrison Keillor
By Garrison Keillor
July 3, 2025
read this for my grandma and very nostalgic but was an olllllllllldie 🫶🏻
June 9, 2024
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this collection of stories, sketches and satires. Three years ago I obtained a copy of the same author's famous Lake Woebegone Days and I began reading it with high expectations. I had heard many good things about it and in fact it had been promoted to me as a rare classic of humour. But it disappointed me. There was something not right about it and I'm still not quite sure what. Halfway through the 500 page tome a sudden urge came over me. I was on a train at the time and I opened the window and hurled the book out. A sheep in a field winked at me. That felt like collusion of some kind.
I felt relief and I vowed never to read Keillor again. He seemed a waste of my reading time. Yet this book came into my hands a year or so later. I began reading tentatively, not expecting to get very far, but I found myself enjoying the stories. They were absurdist in style, cool in tone, sincerely offbeat whimsies and yet tightly focused on the real. I kept going and the stories kept getting better.
There was a dip in quality in the second section, which is mostly concerned with baseball, which I have no interest in at all, but the subsequent sections picked up again rapidly. Satires about politics followed, highly inventive and bizarre, then fantasias on all sorts of themes, works reminiscent of the prose of Barthelme and Brautigan. In fact one of the best pieces in this collection is a wickedly funny parody of Brautigan called 'Ten Stories for Mr Richard Brautigan and Other Stories'. It mimics the style of Brautigan perfectly and manages to both pay tribute to and gently mock the eccentric and brilliant older author.
My favourite story in the book (and many of the 34 pieces here are superb) is 'Mission to Mandala', which is definitely in my top 50 short stories of all time. It satirizes action comics and does so with such a precise understanding of the genre that it is clear Keillor was an avid reader of these comics when he was young. The question remains: will I make another attempt on Lake Woebegone Days? And the answer is no. I know for sure I don't like that novel. But I may well seek out WLT: a Radio Romance which seems to be an expansion of one of the pieces in this present collection that I enjoyed.
I felt relief and I vowed never to read Keillor again. He seemed a waste of my reading time. Yet this book came into my hands a year or so later. I began reading tentatively, not expecting to get very far, but I found myself enjoying the stories. They were absurdist in style, cool in tone, sincerely offbeat whimsies and yet tightly focused on the real. I kept going and the stories kept getting better.
There was a dip in quality in the second section, which is mostly concerned with baseball, which I have no interest in at all, but the subsequent sections picked up again rapidly. Satires about politics followed, highly inventive and bizarre, then fantasias on all sorts of themes, works reminiscent of the prose of Barthelme and Brautigan. In fact one of the best pieces in this collection is a wickedly funny parody of Brautigan called 'Ten Stories for Mr Richard Brautigan and Other Stories'. It mimics the style of Brautigan perfectly and manages to both pay tribute to and gently mock the eccentric and brilliant older author.
My favourite story in the book (and many of the 34 pieces here are superb) is 'Mission to Mandala', which is definitely in my top 50 short stories of all time. It satirizes action comics and does so with such a precise understanding of the genre that it is clear Keillor was an avid reader of these comics when he was young. The question remains: will I make another attempt on Lake Woebegone Days? And the answer is no. I know for sure I don't like that novel. But I may well seek out WLT: a Radio Romance which seems to be an expansion of one of the pieces in this present collection that I enjoyed.
June 1, 2015
I have had a tumultuous relationship with Keillor's writing. In short, I greatly enjoyed the novel Wobgeon Boy and I also enjoy his radio show, but I disliked "The Book of Guys" and, to a lesser extent,"Happy To Be Here. I think there's just something about his short stories that leaves me unsettled and doesn't offer enough substance/plot for my tastes.
The first section of the book kept me in mind of the way I felt reading the short stories in Salinger's Nine Stories. This is another author whose novels I love but whose short stories leave me wanting. Fortunately, the subsequent sections of Happy To Be Here were far more satisfying for me. There were quite a few stories I actually enjoyed, which was more than I could say for The Book of Guys. He has an interesting way of creating real-life pictures that end up being absolutely ridiculous. His subtle wit shows through in a lot of the pieces in this book, that same wit which causes so many people I know to say "I don't like A Prairie Home Companion...I don't get it, it's not funny." My favorite piece from the book was probably "How It Was in America a Week Ago Tuesday" - I found it endearing and amazing, and had to constantly remind myself "this isn't REAL, he's just making up numbers!" but found that whole circle of realizations amusing.
This book contains a ton of different writing styles, and I think anyone could pull out at least one piece from it that they find worthwhile and entertaining. But that means the rest of it may be found much less satisfying.
The first section of the book kept me in mind of the way I felt reading the short stories in Salinger's Nine Stories. This is another author whose novels I love but whose short stories leave me wanting. Fortunately, the subsequent sections of Happy To Be Here were far more satisfying for me. There were quite a few stories I actually enjoyed, which was more than I could say for The Book of Guys. He has an interesting way of creating real-life pictures that end up being absolutely ridiculous. His subtle wit shows through in a lot of the pieces in this book, that same wit which causes so many people I know to say "I don't like A Prairie Home Companion...I don't get it, it's not funny." My favorite piece from the book was probably "How It Was in America a Week Ago Tuesday" - I found it endearing and amazing, and had to constantly remind myself "this isn't REAL, he's just making up numbers!" but found that whole circle of realizations amusing.
This book contains a ton of different writing styles, and I think anyone could pull out at least one piece from it that they find worthwhile and entertaining. But that means the rest of it may be found much less satisfying.
November 19, 2012
Along with "The Book Of Guys" and "WLT", this is probably my favourite Keillor work. Essentially, this gathers up all the non-Wobegon material from the early part of his career -- and a lot of it is absolutely side-splitting.
"Happy to Be Here" consists entirely of unrelated short pieces, mostly originally written for The New Yorker. In them, Keillor deftly (but never snidely) parodies old radio serials, comic books, 70s self-help columns, small-town newspapers, government press releases, hard-boiled detective fiction and whatever else happened to cross his path at the time. Almost everything is played for flat-out laughs, and Keillor seldom fails to get 'em; a few items are somewhat more serious or bittersweet in nature, but they actually help vary the tone of the book and still blend in quite well.
Overall, "Happy To Be Here" isn't really a book that's meant to be read cover-to-cover in one sitting ... it's sort of a collection of literary amuse-bouches, with the stories meant to be consumed one or two at a time before going on something more substantial. Take it in that spirit, and you should thoroughly enjoy the selection of treats Keillor offers here.
"Happy to Be Here" consists entirely of unrelated short pieces, mostly originally written for The New Yorker. In them, Keillor deftly (but never snidely) parodies old radio serials, comic books, 70s self-help columns, small-town newspapers, government press releases, hard-boiled detective fiction and whatever else happened to cross his path at the time. Almost everything is played for flat-out laughs, and Keillor seldom fails to get 'em; a few items are somewhat more serious or bittersweet in nature, but they actually help vary the tone of the book and still blend in quite well.
Overall, "Happy To Be Here" isn't really a book that's meant to be read cover-to-cover in one sitting ... it's sort of a collection of literary amuse-bouches, with the stories meant to be consumed one or two at a time before going on something more substantial. Take it in that spirit, and you should thoroughly enjoy the selection of treats Keillor offers here.
Read
January 2, 2020This book came from a random box o'box. It took me a second to get use to the train of thought as I had no idea what to expect. After a while, I really appreciated it and laughed out loud so to speak.
I enjoyed the chapter on step-mothers and how they got a bad wrap. I liked the re-write of the stories of Snow, Cinderella and Gretal. It was reminiscent of Wicked, in many ways.
I also enjoyed the little story about middle men in the arts. Ask for $10,000 v. $100,000 seems so appropriate in light of the Maddoff and boy band scandals.
Be careful was also pretty good. I whole-heartedly agree with this particular satire. If I fall, I want to be the one to decide who can laugh and who can not. Indeed with respect to tall people, I have always thought that their distance to the ground was particularly problematic in falling, vs. children who fall often and are much closer to the ground.
I highly recommend this book for people who like the silliness of humor similar to Monty Python or Douglas Adams.
I enjoyed the chapter on step-mothers and how they got a bad wrap. I liked the re-write of the stories of Snow, Cinderella and Gretal. It was reminiscent of Wicked, in many ways.
I also enjoyed the little story about middle men in the arts. Ask for $10,000 v. $100,000 seems so appropriate in light of the Maddoff and boy band scandals.
Be careful was also pretty good. I whole-heartedly agree with this particular satire. If I fall, I want to be the one to decide who can laugh and who can not. Indeed with respect to tall people, I have always thought that their distance to the ground was particularly problematic in falling, vs. children who fall often and are much closer to the ground.
I highly recommend this book for people who like the silliness of humor similar to Monty Python or Douglas Adams.
October 14, 2014
Happy To Be Here by Garrison Keillor (Atheneum 1982) (Fiction). This is a collection of essays from the urbane, witty, and sophisticated Keillor (think of his “New Yorker” period output). It has nothing to do with Lake Wobegon or with the Prairie Home Companion. I recognize that he was quite successful writing this type of material, but I personally am glad that he has moved away from this and has moved toward more approachable works. My rating: 6/10, finished 1983.
November 22, 2012
Of all the many Keillor books I've read this was my least favorite. Not that it's bad, because of course it isn't, it's just a collection of short stories and I probably should have been reading a novel, because that's what I like to read. Read several of the stories to my wife after kids were in bed and we laughed and laughed together, which made the whole thing worth it. Best when read out loud in bed.
March 23, 2013
Perhaps I am guilty of comparing Keillor with Keillor. It's a high standard (but don't go thinking you're someone, because you're not, LOL). After having read the immortal Lake Wobegon Days, it was a tall order to come up with something comparable.
Happy to Be Here, in contrast, found my attention wandering. By the time it ended, I didn't really care what he had to say.
I was glad to see him standing tall again with Pontoon, which is funny as hell.
Happy to Be Here, in contrast, found my attention wandering. By the time it ended, I didn't really care what he had to say.
I was glad to see him standing tall again with Pontoon, which is funny as hell.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews