Jean Shepherd was one of Americas 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 Keillorlike figure whose unique voice transcended the airwaves and affected a whole generation of nostalgic Americans. A Fistful of Fig Newtons is classic Jean Shepherdsidesplittingly funny and sardonically irreverent. Here are Shepherds 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 lifeall of them delivered in Jean Shepherds witty, classy, unforgettable style.