Lummox: The Evolution of a Man

In the slapstick tradition of A Confederacy of Dunces comes Lummox -- part farce, part treatise on what it mean to be a man in America, part true-life tale of a twenty-something man stumbling through the Reagan years, all of it funny in a way that will warm your heart.

The lummox is Mike Magnuson, your friendly neighborhood big guy with a foul mouth, a spare tire around his midsection, and a tender heart, and these are his years working in factories, hanging out in taverns, befriending reprobates, going to college, having troubles with the law, and living with crazy jazz musicians and with lesbian separatists. When a mysterious phantom enters his life, he sets himself on a quest to discover the true meaning of lummoxness, and what he learns along the way is both shocking and hilarious.

Written with honesty and selfeffacing wry humor, Lummox is an exceptional story of manhood at a time of its redefinition, a book that will leave you laughing out loud in recognition and cheering for lummoxes everywhere.

Mike Magnuson is the author of The Right Man for the Job and The Fire Gospels. He teaches creative writing at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.