Customer Reviews

Lake Wobegon Summer 1956

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This was my first time reading a Garrison Keillor novel. I was pleasantly surprised at how good this book was. It follows the life of 14-year-old Gary as he grows up in the summer of 1956. I love how Garrison Keillor writes. The story moves along in a lazy manner. You almost don't even realize that the story is progressing. It is much the same as I remember spending my summers. The days blend together until suddenly you wake up and realize that the summer is half over, and then suddenly you're waking up for school early in the morning again. This would make for a boring novel if Keillor wasn't such a gifted storyteller. The characters are wonderfully human and I found myself laughing out loud as Gary described the adventures and personalities of his small town. And just when you think that the book is going to be nothing but a comedy, Keillor hits you with a profound lesson about life.

This was truly a great book. Some people may be offended by parts, but this book is about life and life isn't always innocent and pretty. Garrison Keillor did a terrific job writing this book and I definitely have to recommend it to everyone.

Question: How many adjectives does it take to describe Lake Wobegon Summer 1956? Answer : 1956 This book is so terrific, so delightful and special and funny and endearing and ...well, you get the idea. As always, Keillor writes with a light touch and as always, gets into your bloodstream as fast as a shot of B -12. I can't even begin to impart to you the hilarity awaiting you inside the covers of Lake Wobegon Summer 1956. But, ponder if you will, our hero Gary's list of "... ten known categories of flatulence." Gary's summer 1956 is filled with characters you won't soon forget. His pious family,although smothering, are hilarious. And Gary's adventures in pornography are wonderful. Buy the book and read it! You won't regret it!

"Lake Wobegon:Summer 1956" did contain a share of laughs and amusing moments, but overall, the book failed to hold my interest. It cound best be described as "Woe, be gone!" The book is filled with sexual fantasies and dreams of exuberant youth, but the adolescent fantasies soon became tiring and mundane. The reader keeps hoping a plot of more substance will unfold but, alas, it does not. The scenario almost seems like an attempt to reproduce the theme of a terrific older book, "Summer of 42", but Keillor's book lacks the strong setting, characters, intrigue, and raw, sentimental emotion found in "Summer of 42".

"Summer 1956" makes for a quick, light-hearted read, but it is probably not a book that will stand the test of time. Read it, if you will, but do not expect to find anything memorable among the pages.

Sorry! This should have been a great book. Started with an interesting concept and characters, but did not deliver the goods. Lack of plot. Just meandered around Lake Wobegon and didn't really succeed in holding my interest.

Keillor's bittersweet semi-memoir will be a welcome addition to any long-time fan's bookshelf and also a great introduction to new fans. Some of the material is taken from his radio show, but he freshened it up and perfected it before serving it up again. Thank goodness we still have Keillor running around and reminising about small town America. We need all the humorists we can get.

This book is DEFINITELY NOT one of Garrison Keillors best. This book rambles on and on and was sooooooo boring I almost quit reading it many times! I've read and loved all of his other books but this was a big dissapointment. Save your money and spend it on another of his books. I decided to complete the book only to say that I read the whole, entire, boring piece and about the only good thing in the book was the ending! Hopefully GK will come out with something that is more Lake Wobegon again soon. I was disappointed, but will read more books of his in the future I'm sure.

There are few authors alive today who possess the ability to seamlessly mix sweet nostalgia with bittersweet melancholy in their writings. Garrison Keillor maintains his reputation as one of these authors in Lake Wobegon, Summer 1956. Keillor skillfully juxtaposes the serenity of small town life and the closeness of family with the frustrations of teenagers and the not-so-idyllic reality of day-to-day family existence. The result of these depictions is a setting and a set of characters that seem real.

My problem with the book is that I felt like I've been here before through Keillor's other Lake Wobegon books. I was already familiar with the Bunsens, the Larsens, the Sanctified Brethren, and the Chatterbox Café's location. While I don't mind revisiting familiar territory (a sentiment with which I'm sure many of his readers would agree), I felt that there was nothing really new in this book.

Since Keillor's attempts outside of the Lake Wobegon milieu have had mixed success, it is easy to understand why he would want to stick closely to his "comfort zone." The combination of this familiar setting and his tremendous talent makes the result of an enjoyable read a foregone conclusion. Yet, one can only hope that Lake Wobegon, Summer 1956 is not the first sign of that one of America's finest writers is running out of ideas.

This was a real disappointment. I've enjoyed Keillor's other books, as well as PHC, but this book was uneven and just not engaging. There didn't seem to be a discernable plot and it was a struggle to get through the book without losing interest entirely. I recommend you skip this book and read one of his other gems.

As a longtime book reviewer at a midwestern newspaper I have read (and reviewed) much of Keillor's work. It's wise for Keillor to write about Lake Wobegon a.k.a. small town America with all the requisite quirkiness, nostalgia, etc. That's what his audience wants and expects. However, he should also be respectful of this promise. Suddenly LW is populated with husbands who constantly cheat on their wives and girlfriends, and his charming and lyrical pages have become filled with unnecessary pornography. I imagine Keillor's work floats through a publishing house relatively untouched, and that's fine as far as his wonderful prose goes, but a brave editor should have helped him sharpen the storyline to offer more reader satisfaction and to maintain LW continuity. Despite landing on the bestseller list, this book received mostly bad reviews ("USA TODAY," "The New York Times") and I believe these two things would have saved it.

As a fan of Garrison Keillor, I was mildly disappointed in his latest effort. As I read I kept wondering what happened to the Lake Wobegon I have come to know and love. This feels like a different place, and perhaps that is the point, as I suppose places are indeed different when examined from the perspective of a 14 year old boy. Did I laugh?... yes, but I grew tired of the bathroom humor and endless adolescent facination with all things sexual. I must agree with many of the other reviewers that this book is in need of a more thorough editing. I hope in his next effort Keillor returns us to the Lake Wobegon I was longing for.