SOURCE: A review of Leaving Home, in The New York Times Book Review, October 4, 1987, p. 9.

In the following review, Gray states that, "At their best these stories are contemporary folk tales of American comic-karma … [at their worst many of these stories are like honey-coated breakfast cereal."]

For years I have listened to National Public Radio's evening news program "All Things Considered," and often on Saturdays I would forget that it was cut from 90 to 60 minutes to make room for a show called "A Prairie Home Companion." Not being one to turn off my radio until I'm outright offended, I passively left it on, and that's how Garrison Keillor slowly crept into my life. He seemed if not a remedy to the news at least a soft escape, an alternative to a third martini. Like Mr. Keillor, I perform monologues myself for a living, so I would often force...