Dear County Agent Guy

Jerry Nelson writes comic essays about rural America, set in small towns where people drive pickups, eat pancake suppers on Sunday evenings, and drop by neighbors' kitchens to grumble about the county agent. Drawing on his years as a dairy farmer, he narrates from the perspective of a quiet, sly husband who sees the absurd side of ordinary life. Readers of his columns, which reach around 250,000 people each week, have also heard pieces of his work on the radio program Prairie Home Companion.

The collection moves through the stages of a rural life: courtship, the arrival of a child, family routines, relationships with neighbors, and the daily chores of farm work. In one essay he offers the delivery room doctor the loan of his calf puller, and elsewhere he wonders why a man who spends his days knee-deep in manure is helpless with a baby's diaper.

Nelson's humor is often compared to that of Mark Twain, Jean Shepherd, Dave Barry and Garrison Keillor. The pieces shift from laugh-out-loud to tender, offering a warm portrait of a distinctly American way of life.