In God We Trust

<b>A collection of humorous and nostalgic Americana stories--the beloved bestselling classics that inspired the movie <i>A Christmas Story</i></b> <p/>Before Garrison Keillor and Spalding Gray there was Jean Shepherd: a master monologist and writer who spun the materials of his all-American childhood into immensely resonant--and utterly hilarious--works of comic art. <i>In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash</i> represents one of the peaks of his achievement a compound of irony affection and perfect detail that speaks across generations. <p/><i>In God We Trust</i> Shepherd's wildly witty reunion with his Indiana hometown disproves the adage You can never go back. Bending the ear of Flick his childhood-buddy-turned-bartender Shepherd recalls passionately his genuine Red Ryder BB gun confesses adolescent failure in the arms of Junie Jo Prewitt and relives a story of man against fish that not even Hemingway could rival. From pop art to the World's Fair Shepherd's subjects speak with a universal irony and are deeply and unabashedly grounded in American Midwestern life together rendering a wonderfully nostalgic impression of a more innocent era when life was good fun was clean and station wagons roamed the earth. <p/>A comic genius who bridged the gap between James Thurber and David Sedaris Shepherd may have accomplished for Holden Indiana what Mark Twain did for Hannibal Missouri.