Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

ME, BY JIMMY (BIG BOY) VALENTE

By Garrison Keillor

Viking, 152 pages, $15.95

The wry chronicler of Lake Woebegon goes “ghostwriter” to document the life of Jimmy “Big Boy” Valente, a professional wrestler turned governor of Minnesota. Jimmy’s talents are myriad: He does a tour of duty in the Navy’s top-secret WALRUS program (Water Air Land Rising Up Suddenly); he sells a script to Hollywood and wrestles his way to world heavyweight champion. Returning to Minnesota, he runs for office as a member of the Ethical Party, a “grab bag of bikers and bird-watchers and disgruntled dishwashers. . . .”