Reviews 243 farmers, the Nordic Lutherans, the German Catholics, and the nineteen Sanctified Brethren who make up the population (942), plus the establish ments and landmarks around which their lives revolve : the Sons of Knute Lodge, Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility Church, the Chatterbox Cafe, the Sidetrack Tap, the Co-op grain elevator, the Prairie Home Cemetery, the Statue of the Unknown Norwegian. Life here is lived deliberately. The town motto is “Sumus quod sumus” (We are what we are). Pretension has no place in the local scale of values: “Left to our own devices, we Wobegonians go straight for the small potatoes. Majestic doesn’t appeal to us; we like the Grand Canyon better with Clarence and Arlene parked in front of it, smiling.” Wobegonians are anti-hype. They eschew the neighboring shopping malls and supermarkets to shop at home, in, for example, Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery, where “if you can’t find it, you can probably get along without it.” Capitalism has been kept to scale in Lake Wobegon. The motto at Bob’sBank is “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” The pace of life is tied to the seasons; the agrarian rhythms come from nature. As literary proprietor and curator of nostalgia, Keillor lingers lovingly over the memories, reflections, and imaginative constructs that make up his world—and reflect the full range of human experience. Here is God’s plenty once again. These casual but vividly rendered tales prove that we all grew up separately together and that the experience was funny, sad, and usually more profound than we knew. Returning to these experiences through Keillor’s masterful narrative helps us to learn what we might have missed the first time around. M. GILBERT PORTER University of Missouri-Columbia All’s Normal Here: A Charles Bukowski Primer. Edited by Loss Pequeno Glazier. (Fremont, California: Ruddy Duck Press, 1985. 110 pages, $12.00.) This book is exactly what its title purports, a Charles Bukowski primer, offering samples of that significant author’s work, plus commentary written in prose and poetry—most of it interesting, some terrific, a little lousy—as well as letters to, from and about Buk and, finally, line drawings by Bukowski in a delightful style resembling that of a skid row James Thurber. It’s a good book, enjoyable to read, and a must for Bukowski buffs, but it is by no means a critical analysis or objective presentation. As for non-buffs, yes, I mean that Charles Bukowski, the nasty old fart who writes about booze and babes and horse races. I also mean the man Kenneth Funsten recently asserted was one of the two most influential living American poets, the one I consider the west’s most influential. And I’m not the only one. Gerald Locklin has argued the same thing for the same reason: freedom. You don’t have to admire Bukowski’s lifestyle to 244 Western American Literature praise his writing. Reading these various paeans, its seems there may be a real danger in the maestro’s work: young writers emulating his life rather than his liberated verse and prose. Locklin, by the way, contributes two outstanding poems to this collection: “How To Get Along With Charles Bukowski” and “Bukowski at His Best.” In any case, editor Loss Pequeño Glazier has assembled an interesting book, a little thick with adulation, but well worth the price. It’s in no way scholarly or critical, but fun. Try it. GERALD HASLAM Sonoma State University The Collected Stories. By William Humphrey. (New York: Delacorte Press/ Seymour Lawrence, 1985. 371 pages, $19.95.) The twenty-two stories in this collection appeared previously in various magazines and in two volumes—The Last Husband and Other Stories (1953) and A Time and a Place (1959). Humphrey’searly stories, which were much influenced by the writings of fellow Texan Katherine Anne Porter, began appearing in the 1940s. He continued writing short stories after his early suc cess as a novelist, but once his reputation was established, his story output lessened considerably. Now, short fiction from Humphrey is a rarity. One of Humphrey’s strongest points as a writer of fiction is his ability to...