Memories of St. Augustine Highlighted in New Book

St. Augustine
Posted May 30, 2017
Maryann Pohle

I devoured Humorist/Philosopher Matt Geiger’s new book like a fresh batch of hot, buttered popcorn. The 232 page book, “Geiger Counter: Raised by Wolves &Other Stories,” is a clever mixture of childhood remembrances, St. Augustine college stories and vignettes of sweet fatherhood. Stories as diverse as “In the Graveyard,” “Fixing Things” and “A Christmas Story” seamlessly mix his past St. Augustine experiences with more current happenings in an enjoyable stream of consciousness prose, while— surprisingly— the hilarious “Stop and Smell the Manure” is set in Wisconsin, his current home.

The sporadic love letters to his toddler daughter are a nice respite from the cartoonish violence of his accounts of growing up on a farm, and show his growth as a person. Died-in-the-wool re-enactors may quibble with a few of his historical liberties but most of them are in a humorous vein.