Jean Shepherd was one of America’s favorite humorists, his most notable achievement being the creation of the indefatigable Ralphie Parker and his quest for a BB gun in the holiday classic A Christmas Story. But he was so much more, a comic Garrison Keillor–like figure whose unique voice transcended the airwaves and affected a whole generation of nostalgic Americans.
A Fistful of Fig Newtons is classic Jean Shepherd—sidesplittingly funny and sardonically irreverent. Here are Shepherd’s wild and wacky adventures, a dozen truer-than-life tales of college life on the G.I. Bill, of “Kidhood” in Hammond, Indiana, of tailgating on the Jersey Turnpike, and of other familiar defeats and humilations. It is a brilliant comic assessment of American life—all of them delivered in Jean Shepherd’s witty, classy, unforgettable style.

Jean Shepherd was one of America’s favorite humorists, his most notable achievement being the creation of the indefatigable Ralphie Parker and his quest for a BB gun in the holiday classic A Christmas Story. But he was so much more, a comic Garrison Keillor–like figure whose unique voice transcended the airwaves and affected a whole generation of nostalgic Americans.
A Fistful of Fig Newtons is classic Jean Shepherd—sidesplittingly funny and sardonically irreverent. Here are Shepherd’s wild and wacky adventures, a dozen truer-than-life tales of college life on the G.I. Bill, of “Kidhood” in Hammond, Indiana, of tailgating on the Jersey Turnpike, and of other familiar defeats and humilations. It is a brilliant comic assessment of American life—all of them delivered in Jean Shepherd’s witty, classy, unforgettable style.