Me - Garrison Keillor

This is a political satire by one of America's best-loved humorists. Abandoned by his mother at birth, little Clifford Oxnaard grows up in south Minneapolis, tormented by bullies until an encounter with a mail-order body-building course changes his life. Transformed into the six-foot-four 300-pound he-man Jimmy (Big Boy) Valente, he enlists in the U.S. Navy's elite Walrus programme - and is sent to Vietnam. Returning to the States, Jimmy joins a professional wrestling troupe, embarking on a career that takes him to the pinnacle of International World Wrestling, bringing him fame and fortune and introducing him to his hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger. But it also brings him into conflict with a dangerous death-dealing foe who stalks him relentlessly. Meanwhile, political destiny awaits him . . . Raw, explosive and steamy, Me stands head and shoulders above Dan Quayle's Standing Erect and Newt Gingrich's Things I Finally Figured Out as one of the seminal political memoirs of this or any other time.

Garrison Keillor lives in St Paul, Minnesota, home of A Prairie Home Companion, his radio show that has been on the air since 1974. He wrote and appeared in Robert Altman's final film, A Prairie Home Companion and is the author of many books including the Lake Wobegon novels, which include Lake Wobegon Days, Pontoon and Pilgrims.