What do You think about Love Me (2004)?
A small-town writer flukes a massive success and departs in triumph for New York City, leaving his long-suffering wife behind. Eventually he has to return home, tail between legs. While the protagonist is a bit of an idiot, he's still quite likeable. He ends up becoming the Agony Uncle Mr Blue which gives Garrison Keillor lots of opportunities to poke fun at certain prominent individuals, as does day-to-day life at the New Yorker magazine. I hadn't realised it was run by the mafia ;-) This is charming, and funny (in particular the Agony Uncle letters and their responses), and warmly recommended.
—Derek Baldwin
I was once again amazed at how many "sub-stories" was included in the book, the immaculate detail in each of them, and how it all fused in the end. "The character, Larry Whyler, in the book “Love Me” says this about his wife: “I woke every morning in a prayerful state and Iris went off to help people in pee-stained pants who were pushing their shopping carts around, combing the Dumpsters for collectibles. She was their champion. She was bull dog on the phone. She was good at harassment. She stood up to the big cheeses in the blue suits. She fought for the underdog. After someone had been in a fight with Iris, he wasn’t anxious to go again… She took up the recorder and played in the Macalester Groveland Early Music Consort. She read Doris Lessing. We subscribed to the Whole Earth and attended Pete Seeger concerts and joined Common Cause and believed in people of all races and religions working together to make a decent world. We believed that, deep down, people really are good. Or she did. And I believed her.” Then he becomes successful, moves to New York and his life takes a totally different direction, losing himself in fame, failure and then a renaissance of himself, his marriage and the goodness of what he left behind. His writing of the agony column as Mr.Blue, keeps him (unknowingly) afloat - a job his wife got him before he decided to enjoy his success which she never understood, or so he thought. Garrison Keillor himself is always present in the book though. He is not afraid to discuss his own failures and Achilles hill. It is an enjoyable read if you appreciate Garrison Keiller's writing style. It's not the middle-of-the-road blockbuster bestseller rhetoric and he is not afraid to remain true to himself as well as the real people of America. There's nothing bogus about himself or his characters.
—Margitte
In my opinion, Keillor is always a sure bet for some good slapstick humor and I do enjoy a heartfelt belly-laugh when I read his books. This one was no exception. Here, the protagonist publishes a best-selling novel and moves from his small Minnesota home to NYC where he joins other literary greats at The New Yoker magazine. Just as he starts to enjoy his newfound fame and fortune, he sinks deeply into despair because he develops writer's block and cannot write even an article for the magazine much less his second novel for which he already received a hefty advance. So he is offered a job from his old hometown newspaper to write the advice column anonymously. As "Mr. Blue", he tells the lovelorn when to stay and when to leave their controversial counterparts. The advice column runs throughout the novel as a backdrop for his mid-life crisis, which is the real story here. I suspect it was a bit autobiographical, which made the self-deprecatory humor all the more fun. My only qualm with the book was the epilogue. I can't really decide what function it served and whether it enhanced or detracted from the story.
—Judith
