In Lake Wobegon Days, Keillor writes in a tradition of humor which might be seen as an amalgam of Mark Twain in such works as Roughing It (1872) and Life on the Mississippi (1883) and of Sarah Orne Jewett in short stories such as "The Guests of Mrs. Timms" and, especially, in The Country of the Pointed Firs. A more recent writer in this tradition is James Thurber, especially in The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935) and My Life and Hard Times. This book shares with Life on the Mississippi and The Country of the Pointed Firs the roughly chronological, episodic form, the concern with eccentric and humorous characters, and the opposition of nostalgia and realism. Keillor is closer to Jewett in fully realizing the characters in his sketches. When he tells a tall tale, he never goes quite so far as Twain in "Grandfather's Old Ram...