Rating: 
Summary: Clever, humorous writing.
Review: What a wonderful book! The use of language and timing has always been Garrison's strong point, and this novel seems like an exercise in bringing everything he's learned over the years together. It's a very speedy read for almost 300 pages with a breezy, carefree style and astute attention to what would be the primary interests of a yound teen boy in 1956. Garrison's dry humor shines brightly in many passages. Those who don't see what purpose the crude "bathroom humor" serves in this work haven't much vision. As always with Garrison's work, he shines a light delicately through the paper-thin mask of religious fundalmentalism to show the anxious creatures underneath.
Rating: 
Summary: Hometown Boy Makes Good Again, and Again, and Again...
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: If This Is A Novel Then Where's The Story?
Review: Apparently Keillor has been writing so long that he thinks a bunch of bathroom humor and the crude sexual thoughts of a 14-year-old boy can hold our interest for almost 300 pages just because it has his name on the cover. Perhaps there was a deadline to meet or Keillor needed the advance for his sex therapy. The book is obviously autobiographical since the main main character is named Gary, a wannabe writer growing up in Minnesota. It's too bad, since Keillor at his best is capable of clever, intellectual and thoughtful work that can keep a fan spellbound. If this is Lake Wobegon then where are all the characters and situations that readers and radio listeners have come to love or at least cherish for all their familiar foibles? Or maybe like a lot of formerly brilliant writers, he's now a runaway train in need of a good editor.
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Summary: A Sensational, Hilarious, Fabulous, Book!
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: A 14-year-old fundamentalist learns about sex...
Review: A very enjoyable book. Coming from a fundamentalist background myself, I see a lot of truth in Keillor's writings concerning the "Sanctified Brethren". It is with this as his background in which young Gary grows up and learns to write about such things as fatal blood diseases, talking dogs, and watchful dead grandpas. There are a few quibbles I have with this book, such as an overdoing of the soft-core fantasies of the young author (once or twice to get his mindset, sure, but at least 8-10 different scenes of sexual fantasy? Too much), a worthless two-page chapter 15 in which young Gary finds his his old stomping ground isn't the way it used to be, and finally never really developing the character of Roger Guppy except in his relationship with each of the other characters; for such a central character, it would have been nice to know him more. Overall, however, there are a number of times I laughed out loud at the word pictures Keillor gives us. He writes well as a 14-year-old. Nothing will ever take the place of his true masterpiece, "Lake Wobegon Days", but this is still a very entertaining read.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice vignettes, but weak plot
Review: I found that although this novel has a lot of nice vignettes and colorful characters, the plot was too weak for my tastes. Some reviewers said that the book is "slow-moving," though I think the of the novel as more of an atmospheric portrait of GK's character, "Gary" and of his town, the fictional Lake Wobegon. Even though several scenes & charactors were entertaining, I thought some others lacked entertainment value & could have been cut --- for example, at one point 14-year-old "Gary" writes short stories involving boogers and constipation. Now, I admit that it's realistic for a 14 year old to do, however, as a reader, I didn't find it compelling or entertaining. Also, the "shotgun" wedding at the end of the novel wasn't a really positive way to end the novel, either. Overall, I think GK paints a good portrait of his fictional character Gary, and of his life in Lake Wobegon. Despite this, the book didn't keep me turning the pages enthusiastically, and I probably could have skipped it. However, I'm not partial to any of GK's novels (I prefer his radio program & short stories), so if you're a die-hard fan of the other Lake Wobegon books, then you might want to give this one a try.
Rating:
Summary: Funny and Startling at the Same Time
Review: I really enjoy Garrison Keillor's writing, and this book is no exception. What I enjoyed most were his moments of enlightenment. For example, when he realized his father didn't like to be around people crying because he was afraid he'd cry himself, I got a real sense of this boy growing up. His ability to perceive things going on around him, yet not letting these things get to him in a negative way, prove he is a true writer in the making in that Summer of 1956. In addition, Garrison's character development is superb. As a reader, you get a real sense of what these people are really like. In some ways, you wish you could know the characters...then again, maybe not...hehehe. The startling aspect of this book is the amount of sexual content, but alas, this is a teenage boy we're referring to, so I took it as a reflection of the character himself, not as an attempt to shock. All in all, it's a good read. Not excellent, but definitely entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: Read his other books
Review: As usual, Garrison Keillor is a good storyteller. But all his years on the radio must have caused a lot of vulgar, adolescent humor to get bottled up inside, since he can't say it on the air. And he finally found an outlet for it, he put it all in this book. So if you're a fan of "A Prairie Home Companion," and don't mind the crude humor, this book might be for you. Otherwise, his other Lake Wobegon books are much better.
Rating:
Summary: Funny and Startling at the Same Time
Review: I really enjoy Garrison Keillor's writing, and this book is no exception. What I enjoyed most were his moments of enlightenment. For example, when he realized his father didn't like to be around people crying because he was afraid he'd cry himself, I got a real sense of this boy growing up. His ability to perceive things going on around him, yet not letting these things get to him in a negative way, prove he is a true writer in the making in that Summer of 1956. In addition, Garrison's character development is superb. As a reader, you get a real sense of what these people are really like. In some ways, you wish you could know the characters...then again, maybe not...hehehe. The startling aspect of this book is the amount of sexual content, but alas, this is a teenage boy we're referring to, so I took it as a reflection of the character himself, not as an attempt to shock. All in all, it's a good read. Not excellent, but definitely entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Nerdy, horny teenager turns into writer
Review: "I look like a tree toad who was changed into a boy but not completely." Meet Gary. He's a geeky fourteen-year-old with self-esteem problems and an alarming crush on his cousin, Kate. Within the course of the book he discovers he has a love of writing. His first stories have talking dogs, incurable diseases and unpleasant weather phenomena, but as he grows up a little and gains some insight into his family, his friends, and himself, he realizes that there's more to write about. At the heart of it, the book is a pretty typical coming of age story, but it's worth reading if you're a Keillor fan and love his kind of humor (though his jokes and descriptions are more explicit here than they usually are). For me there weren't a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, but I was smiling often and enjoying Keillor's unusual descriptions ("her big yellow butt like two pigs fighting in a laundry bag"). If you're a writer, or just interested in the writing process, you might also like the book because it will give you some wry insights into a writer's mind and also show you some of the development of a novice's work. Plus, there are also some truly touching moments that leap out at you unexpectedly. So if you want a quick, entertaining read that will surprise you sometimes (with funniness or poignancy) read Lake Wobegon Summer 1956.
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