Mike Magnuson has a beer gut, lives in an abandoned school next to a dump and believes that impressing girls involves burping louder than the next guy. He also listens to Bach, reads Proust and has a passion for the drums. In his memoir, “Lummox: The Evolution of Man”, Magnuson offers readers an honest portrait of his humorous, sometimes painful journey to find his purpose in life.
The term “lummox” means oafish and ignorant, and Magnuson’s teacher also uses it to describe him after he disrupts the peace of his second grade class. Beginning in childhood, Magnuson prepares to follow a course in mediocrity, as he is ignored or teased by classmates and is a source of exasperation to authority figures. Yet he scores above average on tests and shows a natural aptitude for music. He just can’t seem to get past his “lummoxness.”
Magnuson grows up in Menomonee Falls, Wis., a “hefty” boy with a school superintendent father and a progressive stay-at-home mother. The author learns early to adopt the role of class clown, a niche he occupies to pigtail-pulling, rude noise-making perfection. By the age of 20, Magnuson is a college dropout living in an abandoned school and working a drill press at the local factory.
Though he spends time with a friend named Hammer and at keg parties attended by high school girls, Magnuson manages to evoke more than just male chauvinism. While his coworkers embody slacker sentiment, he writes about the beauty of a first kiss. Even while surrounded by lime green industrial carpet and week old pizza boxes, he dreams of a better life.
A run-in with the police concerning Magnuson’s underage “friend” and squatter’s status at the school spells the end of his days in Menomonee Falls, and he moves on. He gets a job as a corrections officer in a juvenile delinquent home and develops a rapport with his charges. Yet Magnuson’s lummox tendencies strike again as his best intentions backfire when he takes a boy on a daytrip that costs him his job.
After a long weekend in jail for a hilarious display of public drunkenness, Magnuson decides to take charge of his life and begins classes at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. As he joins the world of academia, he vows to read more and drink less in pursuit of success.
Living with liberal lesbians and trading happy hour for bohemia, Magnuson spends his summer furthering his study in humanity. Despite his propensity for placing his foot in his mouth, he slowly approaches true adulthood with all its responsibilities and rewards. The author reminisces about moments of clarity and true happiness in language accessible to every reader and proves he is more than just a lummox.
As he reaches maturity, Magnuson acknowledges his faults without apology or excuse. Unlike other characters in the book, he rises above the monotony of manual labor jobs and local watering holes. Ignorant comments and irresponsible actions aside, the reader cannot help rooting for Magnuson and identifying with his struggles.
While the descriptions occasionally border on disgusting, Magnuson manages to justify every scene and rude remark and elicit empathy from his readers. Ultimately, “Lummox” is a mostly funny, sometimes moving memoir about a true man’s man.
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