Jean Shepherd: Pomp and Circumstance

Perhaps today's generation knows Jean Shepherd solely for the movie A CHRISTMAS STORY, which he cowrote from his own short stories, and narrated. We older folks remember that for some twenty-plus years he held forth on his own radio show. It is as a radio essayist and raconteur that we meet him in these eight reconstituted broadcasts, which are typical of his WOR, New York, heyday. He's like a cheerful, opinionated uncle, full of amusing stories, wisecracks, and opinions about everything, who just won't shut up at family gatherings. You either invite him because of his relentless gab--or in spite of it. Fans and detractors agree on this: he was, as evidenced in this sampling, inimitable. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine