AUDIO

Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny

by Garrison Keillor
4 CDs. retail ed. unabridged. 4 hrs. HighBridge Audio. 2012. ISBN 9781611746785. $29.95; 1 MP3-CD. retail ed.; digital download. MYS
COPY ISBN
Guy Noir, subject of one of A Prairie Home Companion's series of radio plays, is featured in his own book. As usual, the private dick is broke and has to pay his bar tab before he can wet his whistle again. He becomes entangled with Naomi Fallopian, who has figured out an ingenious plan for weight loss that will make millions (think tapeworms being purposefully introduced into one's digestive system). Guy simply has to guard the tapeworm from which all the moneymakers will be grown. The usual crowd of goons and lowlifes with whom he associates contribute to an increasingly complicated story.
VERDICT Noir may be best in small doses; most listeners will grow weary after hearing too many fart jokes. There is also more sex than usual in this latest title from Keillor. Whether listeners find the Runyonesque dialog and plot funny will depend on individual tolerance for puns, some rather old jokes, and Keillor and company's talented narration. Strictly marginal except for major fans of Guy Noir.
Reviewed by B. Allison Gray, Goleta Branch, Santa Barbara P.L. Syst., CA , Nov 01, 2012
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