This time out America's celebrated humorist takes a plunge into metaphysics. Earlier mythmakers invented the Golem, the Cheshire Cat, even the six-tusked white elephant who foretold the Buddha's birth. And Patrick McManus counters with nothing less than Rancid Crabtree, the Troll (his venomous sister), Goombaw (Eddie Muldoon's grandmother), Valvoleen Grooper, Smokey Joe (he who lost the largest known bass), and Retch Sweeney and his inconstant siblings, Erful and Verman.

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Along the way to enlightenment, McManus draws on certain eternal truths of value to each of us: why, for example, a runny nose is a good defense mechanism if you're a kid brother; the wisdom behind Frost's "The Road Not Taken" (important to know when McManus is driving, especially if he is also developing a technique for removing a fishhook from one's right ear — another person's ear, that is). And who could forget the McManus dictum: "'Sync' is what I'm out of," when trying to explain why bird and shot never arrive at the same place at the same time, or even why the meeting place— "you know, the one just beyond the bend in the river" can never be found.

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Best of all is a treatise on "sequences" in which we learn how to avoid distasteful chores (and go fishing instead) and, finally, why it's the misery endured that defines the sportsman, not the fish caught or the game shot. You'll find McManus country a hilarious and unforgettable territory, as millions of readers already know.

New York Times Bestseller