Customer Reviews

Lake Wobegon Days

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

If you've ever gone for a late afternoon walk in a small town anywhere in America and have looked up and had your breath taken away by the wonder of a full moon hanging there in the quiet light like a ghostly, faded postage stamp, if you've ever shopped in a store that has a hand painted sign above its door, where they make their own bread and slice their own meat, or if you've ever felt that the quiet, shady moment you're inhabiting could almost explode with possibilities, then you might want to check out Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon Days.

This is a truly brilliant book that celebrates the quirks and idiosyncrasies of small town American. Part town history, part family remembrance, Lake Wobegon is imbued with a warm, sly humor that picks at the silliness and the earnestness that are woven so tightly together in small town American life.

Although I found this book immensely entertaining, and times quite moving, I should mention it took me about three months to read. Keillor's immensely appealing voice, story-telling ability and sense of humor kept me at all times very interested, but there isn't really a plot to speak of. I had to keep other books going on the side to give me my plot fix. This was the only aspect of the book that I thought might put off readers otherwise disposed to read the book and enjoy it. But don't let this deter you. Believe me, the book is definitely worth whatever time you take to read it.

I hope to one day live in Lake Wobegon. It seems to be just the sort of backwards, yokel, land-that-time-forgot sort of place that I would feel right at home in.

Keillor's journey through Lake Wobegon is warm, nostalgic, funny, and poignant. The characters are well-crafted -- sometimes lovable, sometimes zany, sometimes despicable, always believable and real.

Don't appraoch this book looking for a deep, moving plot. Approach it as a tour through a quaint town -- a look at its history, pride, culture, and even those bits that are swept under the rug. Read it, and it'll grow on you.

For anyone raised in a small Midwestern town, as I was, this book is fascinating. It is dryly humorous, and never truly abrasive, as it wends its way through anecdotes of small town life and personal foibles. If you're looking for Doestoyevskyan character studies, as one reviewer seemingly was, go elsewhere. But if you want te meet people, and institutions, that you loved, or scorned, or simply observed in passing, this is your sort of book. You'll remember these folks and their stories a long time after you have forgotten more in-depth characters.

I have often said there are two books anyone wanting to know about life in a small town should read; Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis, and this book. Main Street is negative in chief, whereas this book is wistful, gently amusing, and equally accurate, if not more so. It is a very underrated work, and I recommend it most thoroughly.

In 1985, Keillor had been doing _Prairie Home Companion_ for nearly a decade and this volume was a semi-novelization of the stories he was telling about his mythical home town on the show's "News From Lake Wobegon" segment, frequently the best part of the show -- not because it was funny but because it was (and is) funny-sad, funny-sentimental, funny-bizarre, and funny-ludicrous. Another twenty years have now passed and we've come to know the characters of Lake Wobegon intimately: the locally wealthy Krebsbach family, Pastor Ingqvist and Father Emil, Herman Hochstetter and the annual Living Flag, the Sons of Knute, and the rules for visiting on front porches. But this book is where you'll found the multiethnic history of the town, how tiny Mist County was formed, and why neither of them appear on any map. Did you know the local paper, the _Herald-Star,_ got its name because it was bought by Harold Starr? Or why a Lutheran upbringing is likely to cause emigrants from Minnesota to compose their own Theses and look for a door to nail them to? (You'll find a hilarious and largely true list of ninety-five of them here.) Keillor has the gift of taking the small and ordinary, approaching them in a profoundly sympathetic yet skeptical way, and making them universal in their strength.

It's rare that you find a book you read more than once. I'm up to three times now on Lake Wobegon Days. What I like best is the humorous descriptions of life in a small town. It rings true. I see people I grew up with in those descriptions. Small-town life IS like that in many respects. Keillor's got a knack for writing profound truths and hysterical passages that leave the reader wanting more. And in my case, it left this reader rereading just to capture the magic again.

This book is as subtle as summer rain, with the typical easy-going style of Mr. Keillor. He is truly a master of empathy, and also in mesmerizing us to follow his path to understand human beings. It is also a remarkable feat how he takes little things in life and makes them incredibly dramatic. When the drama and emotional suspense reaches its peak, however, he manages to avoid cliches and unnecessary overdramatization by his unique humour and warmth. This is a book I wholeheartedly recommend

This is the book that seemed to spark so much interest in the public radio show and the strange cast of charaters in and around Lake Wobegon. It stands some years later as something of a landmark in literary humor. There are few who can craft a story this funny and yet of this high a literary quality. True, the story in the book hops from place to place and seems disjointed at times, but I believe this is intentional. A stright narrative with a central plot would not quite relay the quirkiness of the characters. As it is, the format seems perfect.

Many people who express frustration with Keillor's writing complain that it simply doesn't "do" anything for them. For me it doesn't have to. In an age when rampant cynicism is en vogue, it is refreshing to be thoroughly amused by something other than hypocrisy or idiocy-- Keillor's prose exposes intertwining threads of small-town life and how they reflect on the human experience.

Anyone that is familiar with Keillor from his radio appearances will be satisfied to learn that his writing reads like he speaks. Its rather hard not to imagine Keillor mumbling each sentence in his low-pitched, calming voice as you read along.

Keillor captures the human imagination so well by juxtaposing the complex (and simple) thoughts of a few people living in a town that values its simplicity and familiarity above all else. Lake Wobegon has all the essential characters: a small café, a grocery, a Catholic church ( Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility), a Lutheran Church, and the Sons of Knute (a Norwegian lodge). As has been noted, in places it reads like a collection of short stories rather than a unified story with a continuous plot.

I still struggle with understanding what makes this book (and Keillor in general) so captivating for me. The best I can do is to say that Keillor maintains reverence for the simple American life while candidly examining the anxieties and aspirations of small-town Americans. Furthermore, even if only for brief spells, Lake Wobegon Days offers and outlet to appreciating the nuances that define our lives.

I just finished "Lake Wobegon Days," and I'm still reeling. The complexity and depth of detail that Keillor brings to his stories is incredible, and the history of Lake Wobegon provides a great background to his "Prairie Home Companion" stories. Truly a wonderful, wonderful book.

I laughed out loud constantly while reading this book. I think you have to know where the author is coming from in order to fully appreciate Lake Wobegon Days. My parents grew up in a small midwestern town, and I spent the early years of my life there too. Again and again, this book reminded me of stories my dad told me and things I remember from my own childhood. This book would be especially enjoyable for anyone who understands or appreciates small-town life.