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Lummox: The Evolution of a Man
In the slapstick tradition of A Confederacy of Dunces comes Lummox -- part farce, part treatise on what it mean to be a man in America, part true-life tale of a twenty-something man stumbling through the Reagan years, all of it funny in a way that will warm your heart. The lummox is Mike Magnuson, your friendly neighborhood big guy with a foul mouth, a spare tire around his midsection, and a tender heart, and these are his years working in factories, hanging out in taverns, befriending reprobates, going to college, having troubles with the law, and living with crazy jazz musicians and with lesbian separatists. When a mysterious phantom enters his life, he sets himself on a quest to discover the true meaning of lummoxness, and what he learns along the way is both shocking and hilarious. Written with honesty and selfeffacing wry humor, Lummox is an exceptional story of manhood at a time of its redefinition, a book that will leave you laughing out loud in recognition and cheering for lummoxes everywhere.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 14, 2020
This has been gathering dust on my bookshelf since I read it originally back in 2002, so I decided it was time for a re-read. It's about what I remembered, albeit slightly less charming - the memoir of a fellow Wisconsinite who spent his late teens and early twenties fumbling through life as a college dropout and kind of a loser before eventually righting the ship. No question it felt more relatable to me in MY mid-twenties than it does in my forties. Magnuson seems like a basically good guy whose upper-middle-class upbringing afforded him the opportunity to get his life back on track after repeated fuckups, there's just not much of substance here.
March 5, 2013
[Reviewed in 2002]
Don’t be misled by the cover to Mike Magnuson’s disarming memoir about growing up in Wisconsin, Lummox: The Evolution of a Man. The dust jacket photo of Magnuson’s ample gut in a snug shirt and his beefy hand clutching a bottle of Miller’s might lead readers to expect a goofy knockoff of Drew Carey’s Dirty Jokes and Beer. To be sure, there’s no shortage of dirty jokes and beer in the pages of Lummox. But make no mistake: this is a literate and soulful memoir by a talented writer. Magnuson, thirty-eight years old, teaches creative writing at Southern Illinois University and has two well-received novels to his credit, The Right Man for the Job (1997) and The Fire Gospels (1998). His work is distinctive for its sensitivity to working class despair and the agonizing vicissitudes of sexual hostility. He studied under Padgett Powell (Edisto, Mrs. Hollingsworth’s Men) at Florida State University and shares his mentor’s talent for illuminating with unsentimental compassion the lives of luckless blue collar boozers, smartass deadbeats, and brainy social misfits.
Lummox is narrated in the third person, but with a playful omniscience that never hinders Magnuson’s voice from shaping every sentence:
The story begins in 1983 and covers a five-year period in the author’s life up to his mid-twenties. It was a time, he says, “of wildness and turbulence and unpredictability.” Two friends will attempt suicide during the course of the book. Magnuson drops out of the University of Wisconsin, works factory jobs, drinks beer nightly in barrooms and smokes pot in alleyways. For several months he literally makes his home in the music room of an abandoned elementary school—the same school he once attended as a child—in his hometown of Menomonee Falls, a suburb of Milwaukee. A summer in the college town of Eau Claire is spent living with a cadre of radical lesbian feminists (whom Magnuson inadvertently offends by offering them a bottle of his parents’ favorite dinner wine: Pere Patriarche). When he manages to land “one of those nifty don’t-have-to-pay-it-back Pell Grants,” he triumphantly returns to college and completes his degree. But a B.A. in English Literature inspires nothing in the way of future prospects, so he applies again for factory work and heads back to the barrooms.
At the heart of Lummox is a prickly Big Brother relationship between the author and a black teenager named Clarence Jeter. The young man is incarcerated at a reformatory where Magnuson is briefly employed as a child care worker. Clarence’s juvenile record includes robbing convenience stores and stealing cars, but his most distinguishing characteristic is a horribly scarred face, the result of his sister covering him in Sterno and setting him on fire when he was six years old. “Now he’s got no ears and no hair,” writes Magnuson. What remains of the boy’s face is “a wafflework of grafts.” The wary friendship that develops between Magnuson and Clarence is surprisingly raucous and touching, like an inner city variation on the bond between Dave Eggers and his brother Toph in Eggers’ memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Magnuson arranges a day pass for Clarence and takes him hiking at nearby Half Moon Lake. Soon they’re sharing a doobie in the marshes. It ends tragically in a way that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading Lummox.
If Mike Magnuson has a blind spot as a writer, it’s probably located in the vicinity of the massive chip he carries on his shoulder regarding academic feminists. The opening half-dozen pages of Lummox are taken up with a bilious diatribe against Women’s Studies programs (which he can’t resist referring to as “Hag Studies”). The notion that feminists on principle pose a castrating threat to the lummoxes of America seems a dubious argument at best. But never mind. Harboring dark suspicions about overeducated college chicks is a privilege born to lummoxes. Mike Magnuson should know. He wrote the book on lummoxes. And an otherwise smart and funny book it is.
Don’t be misled by the cover to Mike Magnuson’s disarming memoir about growing up in Wisconsin, Lummox: The Evolution of a Man. The dust jacket photo of Magnuson’s ample gut in a snug shirt and his beefy hand clutching a bottle of Miller’s might lead readers to expect a goofy knockoff of Drew Carey’s Dirty Jokes and Beer. To be sure, there’s no shortage of dirty jokes and beer in the pages of Lummox. But make no mistake: this is a literate and soulful memoir by a talented writer. Magnuson, thirty-eight years old, teaches creative writing at Southern Illinois University and has two well-received novels to his credit, The Right Man for the Job (1997) and The Fire Gospels (1998). His work is distinctive for its sensitivity to working class despair and the agonizing vicissitudes of sexual hostility. He studied under Padgett Powell (Edisto, Mrs. Hollingsworth’s Men) at Florida State University and shares his mentor’s talent for illuminating with unsentimental compassion the lives of luckless blue collar boozers, smartass deadbeats, and brainy social misfits.
Lummox is narrated in the third person, but with a playful omniscience that never hinders Magnuson’s voice from shaping every sentence:
Mike Magnuson has just turned twenty. He stands five feet ten. Goes 230 pounds most days. His hair’s red and greasy and curly, prone to sticking out to the side as if he’s grabbed a 440-volt cable and can’t let go, and he’s got a big red beard that he keeps big to cover the zits that grow on his chin like buboes. What else? Oh, and he doesn’t give a hoot about much.
The story begins in 1983 and covers a five-year period in the author’s life up to his mid-twenties. It was a time, he says, “of wildness and turbulence and unpredictability.” Two friends will attempt suicide during the course of the book. Magnuson drops out of the University of Wisconsin, works factory jobs, drinks beer nightly in barrooms and smokes pot in alleyways. For several months he literally makes his home in the music room of an abandoned elementary school—the same school he once attended as a child—in his hometown of Menomonee Falls, a suburb of Milwaukee. A summer in the college town of Eau Claire is spent living with a cadre of radical lesbian feminists (whom Magnuson inadvertently offends by offering them a bottle of his parents’ favorite dinner wine: Pere Patriarche). When he manages to land “one of those nifty don’t-have-to-pay-it-back Pell Grants,” he triumphantly returns to college and completes his degree. But a B.A. in English Literature inspires nothing in the way of future prospects, so he applies again for factory work and heads back to the barrooms.
At the heart of Lummox is a prickly Big Brother relationship between the author and a black teenager named Clarence Jeter. The young man is incarcerated at a reformatory where Magnuson is briefly employed as a child care worker. Clarence’s juvenile record includes robbing convenience stores and stealing cars, but his most distinguishing characteristic is a horribly scarred face, the result of his sister covering him in Sterno and setting him on fire when he was six years old. “Now he’s got no ears and no hair,” writes Magnuson. What remains of the boy’s face is “a wafflework of grafts.” The wary friendship that develops between Magnuson and Clarence is surprisingly raucous and touching, like an inner city variation on the bond between Dave Eggers and his brother Toph in Eggers’ memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Magnuson arranges a day pass for Clarence and takes him hiking at nearby Half Moon Lake. Soon they’re sharing a doobie in the marshes. It ends tragically in a way that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading Lummox.
If Mike Magnuson has a blind spot as a writer, it’s probably located in the vicinity of the massive chip he carries on his shoulder regarding academic feminists. The opening half-dozen pages of Lummox are taken up with a bilious diatribe against Women’s Studies programs (which he can’t resist referring to as “Hag Studies”). The notion that feminists on principle pose a castrating threat to the lummoxes of America seems a dubious argument at best. But never mind. Harboring dark suspicions about overeducated college chicks is a privilege born to lummoxes. Mike Magnuson should know. He wrote the book on lummoxes. And an otherwise smart and funny book it is.
November 10, 2007
I love independent bookstores, and my wife, who has a masters degree in education in the area of reading, has taught me to love autographed books because that means that the author has actually handled the book that you own. So a couple of years ago I was in Oxford, Mississippi for a conference at Ole Miss. I spent most every evening in one of the best bookstoree I have ever visited, Square Books. Square Books has a healthy number of authors visit to sign books and to give readings. So why did I a book named Lummox? Well it was the autograph, not only did he sign his name, but with a few lines he drew a self portrait. The book purports to be a memoir, but it really deals only with with four incidents that revolve around his attempt to get an education. There is a lot a truth to the title, the author, at least at the times that that this book touches on, is truly a lummox. The subtitle to the book is "the evolution of a man"; there is no evidence in this book of any evolution. At the beginning Mike is a lummox and he remains one throughout. The author is now a creative writing professor at Southern Illinois University, so hopefully there was some evolution after the time period covered in this book.
Read
January 21, 2008I let you know the 'star' rating when I finish. Expect a review in 2009.
January 1, 2012
I could not get interested in this book.
September 24, 2025
The only thing I can say bad about this book is that it took some getting used to the fact that it was written in the third person; something I usually find horribly pretentious and annoying but managed to be endearing in this case.
Mike Magnuson manages to really tap into the heart and soul of so many men out there who get dismissed because of what they are on the surface. I know, because I am not unlike Mike Magnuson, what it is like to get judged as a doof because of my love of cheap, yellow, fizzy beer, crude jokes and drunken shenanigans. So few people seem to understand that a lot of people who behave like a lummox don't always have so much choice in the matter and that there is often much more going on there than people give them credit for.
In Lummox you get not only a window into the soul of a lummox but a really in depth look at what creates one. Of course there are other book out there that celebrate the 'mans man' or 'guy of guys' but this one differs in a few areas that make it stand out. For one thing Mike is never an unabashed or unapologetic lummox, he knows he is a bit of a jag. It's also refreshing that when there is the cliche 'awakening' and realization that he's being a jag and needs to change the change is not perfect and he's OK with that. So many books like this go to one extreme or the other with the author either moving on and condemning every part of the lummox life style or just saying fuck it and continuing to be an ass and blaming it all on society. This book illustrates and rare example where there is a delicious middle ground; a man who wants to behave, tires to behave and is aware when he fails but has learned to accept that as a part of who he is.
Mike Magnuson manages to really tap into the heart and soul of so many men out there who get dismissed because of what they are on the surface. I know, because I am not unlike Mike Magnuson, what it is like to get judged as a doof because of my love of cheap, yellow, fizzy beer, crude jokes and drunken shenanigans. So few people seem to understand that a lot of people who behave like a lummox don't always have so much choice in the matter and that there is often much more going on there than people give them credit for.
In Lummox you get not only a window into the soul of a lummox but a really in depth look at what creates one. Of course there are other book out there that celebrate the 'mans man' or 'guy of guys' but this one differs in a few areas that make it stand out. For one thing Mike is never an unabashed or unapologetic lummox, he knows he is a bit of a jag. It's also refreshing that when there is the cliche 'awakening' and realization that he's being a jag and needs to change the change is not perfect and he's OK with that. So many books like this go to one extreme or the other with the author either moving on and condemning every part of the lummox life style or just saying fuck it and continuing to be an ass and blaming it all on society. This book illustrates and rare example where there is a delicious middle ground; a man who wants to behave, tires to behave and is aware when he fails but has learned to accept that as a part of who he is.
September 2, 2018
I found this book on the side of the road a few years ago in a box labeled “free books”. It sat on my shelf, unread, for almost five years. I began reading with an open mind. As I read, I had to force myself to continue. I promised myself I’d finish. I then realized that this man was from Wisconsin and much of the book took place in my hometown. The author lived in my neighborhood (the very neighborhood in which I found the book), graduated from the same University as me, worked at the same place, and hung out where I hung out.
Luckily the author and I are of different generations. If you love to read books about crappy people growing up to be crappy people who write crappy books, this is for you. He was 20, hung out with other 20 year old men who tried to fuck middle school girls. He was run out of his home town.
Don’t worry though! He listened to classical music as a kid and was smart. He even lived with lesbians!! It’s ok for him to talk about scoring pussy but don’t you dare judge this lummox by his cover. There is more to him than how he looks. Someone give this guy a cookie. He read Proust.
Two stars in generous. The funniest part of this book is that he’s a professor.
Luckily the author and I are of different generations. If you love to read books about crappy people growing up to be crappy people who write crappy books, this is for you. He was 20, hung out with other 20 year old men who tried to fuck middle school girls. He was run out of his home town.
Don’t worry though! He listened to classical music as a kid and was smart. He even lived with lesbians!! It’s ok for him to talk about scoring pussy but don’t you dare judge this lummox by his cover. There is more to him than how he looks. Someone give this guy a cookie. He read Proust.
Two stars in generous. The funniest part of this book is that he’s a professor.
September 9, 2023
Not the type of book I usually read at all. I know the author personally, met him years ago at a writers conference and bought this book, then it sat on my shelf until many years later when we met again. The second meeting had us both filling in with a country band - me on bass, Mike on drums - and I realized I had a copy of his book, so I decided to finally go ahead and read it. It’s extremely well written, and kept my interest throughout, but as I was reading I kept thinking “if I didn’t know Mike personally, would I be reading this? Who would the target audience be for this book?”… I have no idea. Lots of WI references. Crazy autobiographical look at his life up until he wrote the book. Wild stories told in a somewhat brutish fashion that I could see not everyone would like, but having been a professional musician for years it just seemed like it was told the way we talked to each other when I was playing full time. I liked it. Would I recommend it?… sure, I guess - but… to who?… you, maybe? If you read this far why not take a shot? His writing does take you right into the stories where you can envision all the aspects of what’s going on… and there are some really great moments within the pages here as well.
May 7, 2017
Mike's experiences are outrageous and things I have never heard anyone else do. yet they are uniquely Wisconsin as well. I loved this book. He tells great stories and does so in a tone that really made me feel like I was there with him. He does not hold back and is brutally honest about what he did and why he did them.
If you had any sort of wayward youth, I recommend this book. His stories are ones that you won't forget.
If you had any sort of wayward youth, I recommend this book. His stories are ones that you won't forget.
April 13, 2018
I saw Mike at Borders in Ann Arbor (remember Borders?!) back when this came out. He was witty and welcoming so I bought a copy and was happy with the book. Informative and enlightening on other perspectives that simply what I've grown to know, there are all types of people in this country and all types of ways of dealing with...things.
March 18, 2022
An utterly unique voice in a world of sameness.
Just as the author intended I evolved alongside Mike Magnuson. I started out hating him and ended up rooting for him. All along the way he made me laugh out loud.
Just as the author intended I evolved alongside Mike Magnuson. I started out hating him and ended up rooting for him. All along the way he made me laugh out loud.
March 25, 2011
The only thing I can say bad about this book is that it took some getting used to the fact that it was written in the third person; something I usually find horribly pretentious and annoying but managed to be endearing in this case.
Mike Magnuson manages to really tap into the heart and soul of so many men out there who get dismissed because of what they are on the surface. I know, because I am not unlike Mike Magnuson, what it is like to get judged as a doof because of my love of cheap, yellow, fizzy beer, crude jokes and drunken shenanigans. So few people seem to understand that a lot of people who behave like a lummox don't always have so much choice in the matter and that there is often much more going on there than people give them credit for.
In Lummox you get not only a window into the soul of a lummox but a really in depth look at what creates one. Of course there are other book out there that celebrate the 'mans man' or 'guy of guys' but this one differs in a few areas that make it stand out. For one thing Mike is never an unabashed or unapologetic lummox, he knows he is a bit of a jag. It's also refreshing that when there is the cliche 'awakening' and realization that he's being a jag and needs to change the change is not perfect and he's OK with that. So many books like this go to one extreme or the other with the author either moving on and condemning every part of the lummox life style or just saying fuck it and continuing to be an ass and blaming it all on society. This book illustrates and rare example where there is a delicious middle ground; a man who wants to behave, tires to behave and is aware when he fails but has learned to accept that as a part of who he is.
Mike Magnuson manages to really tap into the heart and soul of so many men out there who get dismissed because of what they are on the surface. I know, because I am not unlike Mike Magnuson, what it is like to get judged as a doof because of my love of cheap, yellow, fizzy beer, crude jokes and drunken shenanigans. So few people seem to understand that a lot of people who behave like a lummox don't always have so much choice in the matter and that there is often much more going on there than people give them credit for.
In Lummox you get not only a window into the soul of a lummox but a really in depth look at what creates one. Of course there are other book out there that celebrate the 'mans man' or 'guy of guys' but this one differs in a few areas that make it stand out. For one thing Mike is never an unabashed or unapologetic lummox, he knows he is a bit of a jag. It's also refreshing that when there is the cliche 'awakening' and realization that he's being a jag and needs to change the change is not perfect and he's OK with that. So many books like this go to one extreme or the other with the author either moving on and condemning every part of the lummox life style or just saying fuck it and continuing to be an ass and blaming it all on society. This book illustrates and rare example where there is a delicious middle ground; a man who wants to behave, tires to behave and is aware when he fails but has learned to accept that as a part of who he is.
May 16, 2010
This book is awesome: but totally rated R.
I think that Mike Magnuson is one of the best autobiographers that I have ever read. And I often read autobiographical novels. For my senior capstone course in undergrad, I read Also, I think Mike Magnuson's problem is the lack of an audience. He caters to a man's man, a guy who drinks pitchers of beer on weekends and watches sports on Sundays. That limits his audience. Take Sedaris, he's a gay world traveler who lives in New York City. He caters to a very literate and book-buying audience. Magnuson caters to the factory worker in Minnesota. I think this is why he hasn't blown up and become super-famous. Because Magnuson's writing is every bit as compelling. I also think he exaggerates less than Sedaris does.
UPDATE: this book has stuck with me for weeks after I finished. I realized that the whole point of this book was to show Magnuson's evolution from a homeless kid to someone who actually appreciates feminism. The rest of the story is he becomes a college professor--but you don't find out this until you read Heft on Wheels.
I think that Mike Magnuson is one of the best autobiographers that I have ever read. And I often read autobiographical novels. For my senior capstone course in undergrad, I read Also, I think Mike Magnuson's problem is the lack of an audience. He caters to a man's man, a guy who drinks pitchers of beer on weekends and watches sports on Sundays. That limits his audience. Take Sedaris, he's a gay world traveler who lives in New York City. He caters to a very literate and book-buying audience. Magnuson caters to the factory worker in Minnesota. I think this is why he hasn't blown up and become super-famous. Because Magnuson's writing is every bit as compelling. I also think he exaggerates less than Sedaris does.
UPDATE: this book has stuck with me for weeks after I finished. I realized that the whole point of this book was to show Magnuson's evolution from a homeless kid to someone who actually appreciates feminism. The rest of the story is he becomes a college professor--but you don't find out this until you read Heft on Wheels.
September 26, 2010
I read Lummox after falling pearls over pumps for Magnuson in Heft on Wheels. The transition was difficult. I was used to reading Magnuson writing in the first person, so reading another memoir, only one written in the third-person, took some getting used to. Especially since I was hungry for first-person Magnuson. Once I got over that obstacle, the book was pretty funny, with Magnuson getting into truly fine form about halfway through, building up to an ending that is yet another beginning. That's a difficult thing for a writer to achieve, but Magnuson did a splendid job with this one. I walked away from the book, wanting to know more, wanting to know who the phantom shitter was and, at the same time, relieved I will never know. Which is sort of how you feel about this book: you wanting know more about the Lummox but also glad you will never know since Lummox, well, he evolves.
July 25, 2011
I heard the author on NPR's "Whadda ya Know" and immediately checked this book out from the library. It's quite an interesting slice of a ne'er do well lummox. I found this to be very entertaining. You'll be surprised at some of the stuff he did. Wow.
August 12, 2008
One of my favorite books published in the last several years.
I'm really surprised this author isn;t more well known than he is.
I'm really surprised this author isn;t more well known than he is.
August 13, 2008
In celebration of real men. fuck the metrosexual. women want real men. lummoxes: lazy, dirty, selfish, shameless. "Lummox is the theory; lummox is the pratice."
August 26, 2008
if i were a dude and completely void of self control (i am slightly), this would represent my late teenage years.
November 10, 2010
Hilarious and insightful
Read
January 26, 2011Love this book. Heartbreaking story of lummox coping in modern society.
August 4, 2012
Fictional memoir, takes place in WI. Very interesting read.
July 10, 2008
Hilarious. Heartbreaking. One of my favorite books ever!
March 7, 2015
A hidden treasure of mistakes, vulnerability and humanity.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews