Product Description
Patrick McManus believes that life's eternal truths exist solely for the purpose of being overturned and proved incorrect. In McManus's world, nothing is what it should be. All steaks should be chicken-fried, strong coffee is drunk by the light of a campfire, and fishing trips consist of men acting like boys and boys behaving like the small animals we've always assumed they were.Into the Twilight, Endlessly Grousing is a hilarious collection from one of the greatest contemporary humorists: Dave Barry or Garrison Keillor with a twist of Mark Twain. In these adventures, McManus offers wry observations about small-town life and curmudgeonly insists on bigger and bigger fish stories.
Amazon.com Review
Outdoor Life magazine columnist Patrick McManus has been compared to Mark Twain. Into the Twilight, Endlessly Grousing demonstrates that he isn't, but McManus will suffice until the next Twain comes along. In this book, the outdoorsman extraordinaire is doing what he does best--telling fish stories, getting into scrapes with buddies, occasionally waxing philosophical, but grousing just as often. Sometimes he even ventures out of the wilderness and into mainstream humor. McManus is easily the equal of Dave Barry or any other contemporary humorist, for that matter:
When I think of all the times a Stupidity Alarm could have saved me from committing a Stupidity ... Here's one instance that comes to mind.
My children: "Daddy, please buy us a horse! Please, please, please, please!"
Me: "Well, kids, I guess a horse wouldn't be all that much trouble."
Stupidity Alarm: WHOOOOP! WHOOOOP! WHOOOOP!
The cowboy who sold me the horse said it loved children. That was true. But as I belatedly discovered, it hated adults.
He covers well-worn territory, sure. But McManus is a pro who tells stories well, so Into the Twilight, Endlessly Grousing is always diverting. And when he tells stories about his boyhood, a note of wistfulness and pathos creeps in that is definitely agreeable. This volume is a fine effort by an experienced woodsman/wordsman.