We Are Still Married by Garrison Keillor
"We Are Still Married" by Garrison Keillor is a collection of writings that showcases a blend of political satire, personal reflection, and humor. The book is divided into five sections, each featuring a variety of short pieces, including parodies, letters, light verse, and stories. Keillor's narrative style leans more towards a pastiche effect compared to his earlier works, with sharper political commentary that reflects his perspective on the political climate of the late 1980s, particularly regarding presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
The collection includes familiar characters from Keillor's beloved Lake Wobegon, alongside anecdotes that hint at personal transitions and tensions in his life, such as his departure from "A Prairie Home Companion." Through whimsical storytelling and poignant reflections, Keillor invites readers into a world that navigates both nostalgia and the complexities of modern life. The book’s content ranges from humorous takes on sports culture to earnest explorations of interpersonal relationships, making it a rich tapestry of American humor and sentiment. Overall, "We Are Still Married" captures Keillor's distinctive voice, blending entertainment with insightful commentary on society and personal experience.
We Are Still Married by Garrison Keillor
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1989
Type of work: Short stories
The Work
Although Keillor has always been at his best in the short narrative or the flawless anecdote, We Are Still Married conveys much more of the pastiche effect than do his previous three books. The political satire is harsher, more focused, and more partisan. A number of the pieces, while extremely entertaining, seemed mainly to be apologias for the author’s recent decisions regarding his personal and professional life.
“Reagan,” written just prior to the presidential election of 1988, is in places pure political commentary. “A Liberal Reaches for Her Whip” is more in the vein of earlier Keillor whimsy, but it, too, includes a direct attack upon presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and the political atmosphere they fostered in the United States. “Patmos,” the account of a trip to Greece, is sprinkled with comment on the fateful nature of the 1988 American presidential election. Previously, Keillor’s narrator persona generally responded with bemused tolerance for the foibles of his fellow man, including his political foibles. Keillor’s political commentary is exceedingly mild by comparison to the Juvenalian assaults launched daily by the Washington-based columnists; still, it was a relatively new—and, to some readers, troubling—aspect of his work.
Other pieces—“Who Do You Think You Are?,” “Regrets,” and “My Life in Prison”—hint at the strained relationships and acrimony that must have accompanied his termination of A Prairie Home Companion while it was at its peak in popularity and his subsequent move from St. Paul to Manhattan by way of Copenhagen. The reader recalls the segment in Lake Wobegon Days wherein Johnny Tollefson, prospective freshman at St. Cloud State College, is longing to change places with Tony Flambeau of the Flambeau Family mystery series. The Flambeaus have a spacious apartment overlooking Central Park. Emil Flambeau is a Nobel laureate microbiologist, Eileen Flambeau is a former screen star, and teenage Tony Flambeau drinks wine (Pouilly-Fuissé) with his parents and calls them by their first names. If Johnny Tollefson had actually succeeded in making it to Manhattan, he would surely have left some ruffled feathers behind him in Lake Wobegon.
We Are Still Married is composed of five sections. Section 1, “Pieces,” includes thirteen short works, highlighted by the brilliant parodies “The Current Crisis in Remorse,” “The Young Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra,” “A Little Help,” and “Lifestyle.” Section 2, “The Lake,” is a five-part miscellany featuring familiar characters from Lake Wobegon. Section 3, “Letters,” begins with a how-to essay on letter writing, which is followed by thirty-one letters of various sorts. “House Poems,” the fourth section, contains eleven pieces of entertaining light verse. “Stories,” the final section, is composed of eleven stories, the last of which also furnishes the title of the book.
Familiar motifs reappear—for example, sports and what they say about American attitudes. “Three New Twins Join Club in Spring” is a humorous response to the Minnesota Twins’ victory in the 1987 World Series, and “Home Team” is a bittersweet rumination on the same subject. “The Babe” recalls the day a sick, aging Babe Ruth came barnstorming through Lake Wobegon. “What Did We Do Wrong?” is a short story about Annie Szemanski, the first woman to play in the major leagues. “Basketball” recounts Keillor’s making three of four shots while taping a piece promoting the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament for CBS, and “Puck Drop” describes his role in the season-opening ceremonies of the Minnesota North Stars.
The contents of We Are Still Married range from seventeen unsigned essays, observations, and reflections appearing much earlier in The New Yorker to selections which appeared in periodicals only shortly before their inclusion in the book. The narrator left Lake Wobegon in the last story in Leaving Home, and We Are Still Married seems to signal further movement away from that mythical community.
Bibliography
Geng, Veronica. “Idylls of Minnesota.” The New York Times Book Review, August 25, 1985, pp. 1, 15.
Hughes, Glyn. “Grace and Fate.” New Statesman 111 (March 7, 1986): 26-27.
Kaplan, James. “A Garrison Keillor Fan Is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Brave, Clean, and Reverent. This Is New York?” New York 28 (January 2, 1995): 52-55.
Keillor, Garrison. “The Gloomy View from Lake Wobegon: Interview.” Interview by David Barsamian. The Nation 266 (January 5, 1998): 10.
Keillor, Garrison. “My New York: Garrison Keillor.” New York 33, no. 49 (December 18-25, 2000): 76-78.
Keillor, Garrison. “Wobegon Poets: Interview with Garrison Keillor.” The Christian Century 120, no. 6 (March 22, 2003): 20-21.
Nordlinger, Jay. “The Political Garrison Keillor.” National Review 51, no. 7 (April 19, 1999): 42-44.