Congratulations, Who Are You Again? - by Harrison Scott Key (Paperback)

About the Book

This funny and wise new memoir from Harrison Scott Key, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, will inspire laughter and hope for anyone who's ever been possessed by a dream of what they want to be when they grow up.

Book Synopsis

A Good Housekeeping Book of the Month

This funny and wise new memoir from Harrison Scott Key, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, will inspire laughter and hope for anyone who's ever been possessed by a dream of what they want to be when they grow up.

Little-known author Mark Twain once said that the two most important days in your life are the day you were born, and the day you find out why. He's talking about dreams here, the destiny that calls every living soul to some kind of greatness. What Mr. Twain doesn't say is: A dream is also a monster that wants to eat you. Nobody tells you this part of the American Dream -- until now. In this new memoir, Congratulations Who Are You Again, readers join Harrison Scott Key on his outrageous journey to becoming a great American writer.

As a young boy in Mississippi, Harrison possessed many special gifts, such as the ability to read and complete college applications. And yet, throughout young adulthood, he failed at many vocations, until one day, after drinking perhaps too many beers and dusting off his King James Bible, he stumbled across a passage about a lonely pelican, which burst into flame inside him. In a mad blaze of holy illumination, Harrison realized his dream: to set the world afire with the light inside him. He would write a funny book. This was his dream.

With unforgettable wit and tenderness, Congratulations Who Are You Again is Harrison's instructive tale of pursuing his destiny with relentless and often misguided devotion, transforming his life beyond all comprehension: He becomes a signer of autographs, a doer of interviews, a casher of checks that are "worth more money than my father had ever imagined any of us might see, this side of a drug-related felony."

On this journey, Harrison finds that as he gains the world, he stands on the precipice of losing everything that means the most: his family, his mind, his soul. Hilarious, honest, and absolutely practical, Congratulations Who Are You Again is a no-holds-barred look at the life of every ambitious human creature, whether you want to write books or make music, start a business or start a revolution. This is a book for the dreamers.

Review Quotes

Praise for The World's Largest Man: "Consistently seasoned with laughs, this memoir is adroitly warm and deep when it is called for. An uncommonly entertaining story replete with consistent wit and lethal weaponry." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Funny as well as tender." - New York Times
"[Key has] a comic voice that puts him in the choir with other humorists you may have heard of--such as P.J. O'Rourke, Roy Blount Jr., Garrison Keillor, Lewis Grizzard, Dave Barry and others. Maybe even Mark Twain. 'The World's Largest Man' is a triumph of a comic memoir." - Mississippi Business Journal
"Blessedly, Key writes with a parched sense of humor, because his stories might otherwise qualify as tragedy. The line here between gasping and guffawing is piano-wire thin, but mostly you enjoy, swept up how Key ekes some brow-furrowing wisdom from most experiences. He's a masterful writer and observer." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"If you want to know where comedy writers come from, meet Harrison Key. In the spirit of David Sedaris, Harrison delivers a collection of personal stories that are laugh-out loud funny and painfully self-aware. When he introduces you to his family, a collection of football and gun nuts from Mississippi, he does it with a brutal honesty that spares no one, including himself. It works because as much as his family can't figure out where he came from, he can't figure it out either. A great read." - Joe Birbiglia, Comedian and Screenwriter of Sleepwalk With Me
"How in the hell is this so funny one second and so heartbreaking the next? Harrison Scott Key examines the topic of fatherhood and sonhood with fresh, clear eyes...except wait, they're not clear because they filled with tears, of laughter one second and sadness the next. I dare you to find a better way to spend the seconds and minutes and hours of your day than with this book." - Tom Franklin, New York Times bestselling author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
"Consistently funny...Congratulations, Who Are You Again? will have readers looking for more from this talented author. - Kirkus Reviews
"A keenly observed account of the publishing process...Hilarious and illuminating." - Booklist
"In his second act, he takes you through his process of realizing that dream with charm and wit, offering entertainment and practical insight for anyone with a seemingly pie-in-the-sky wish list." - Good Housekeeping
"Key is as wise as he is funny." - Jessica Hooten Wilson, The Christian Century