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Summary: It was a quiet day in Reading.....
Review: .... and I was late for work. Garrison Kiellor was reading his book on the wireless (can't call Radio 4 "radio") and I was fascinated. This isn't the US you see on the telly!And when he got to the bit about the statue of the unknown Norwegian, I fell out of bed laughing and nearly had a good excuse for not going to work. As for "no plot" - there isn't meant to be one! It's a series of vignettes. Tha author has been in Edinburgh and broadcasting a really funny show which takes the p*** (affectionately) out of the Scots and Brits as well as the US - which is what reminded me about this book, and prompted me to re-read it . Come on, chaps, lighten up! It's OK to laugh!
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Summary: like wading through molasses
Review: A friend of mine and I have very similar tastes in books, so when he recommended I read the Lake Wobegon series I didn't hestiate to get the books. Big mistake!!! I couldn't even finish Lake Wobegon Days. I found the writing tedious and well, boring. I kept wondering when we were going to get through all the history and get to the story, or maybe that was the story. Either way it definetly wasn't for me. I rarely never finish a book I started but with this book I just couldn't go on. There seemed to be no real story except for people coming and going from a town that seemed to be barely surviving. I took the book on a 14 hour flight and read all of 2 pages, I just couldn't cope and wondered how I got through half the book in the first place. The best thing I did was put down the book, and begin reading something a lot more pleasant.
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Summary: A very accurate, droll look at small town life.
Review: 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.
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Summary: A very accurate, droll look at small town life.
Review: 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.
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Summary: Not recommended
Review: For those fans of A Prairie Home Companion and Keillor's wonderful storytelling, this will be a disappointment. Although the tapes are recited by Keillor himself, it is a dry, emotionless reading with none of his characterisations at all. "Lake Wobegon U.S.A." is a better choice, as it is recorded from APHC and not just a reading.
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Summary: A wonderful book by one of America's greatest story tellers.
Review: Garrison Keillor writes in an easy-to-read and folksy manner. The book is wonderful story of a fictional city in Minnesota where old fashioned values still exist and human foibles are exposed in a gentle but telling manner. You'll read it more than once. I promise.
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Summary: First literary Wobegon experience of a Prairie Home fan.
Review: Humor braided with history and truth gives a masterfully mixed cocktail of Northern Plains living. Keilor uses meticulous detail to take you to Lake Wobegon. Tomato fights to funerals provide windows to Minnesota life as a young boy (Keillor) grows up. Heritage and Norse history are compounded into a small town to pull a smile out of even the staunchest of people. Very enjoyable for anyone with the slightest liking to lutefisk or pickled herring. Very enjoyable.
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Summary: Even if you don't like his radio show. . .
Review: I am not a big of Keillor's radio show, but I think he is an outstanding writer, perhaps our greatest humorist since Twain. Keillor spins the slightest, most insignificant event into episodes that reveal humanity--a bored ten year old lazing around on a stifling summer day, a sickly girl's daydream of becoming a religious icon. . . we've seen these episodes from the indside or the outside and Keillor shows us their universality. Even if you did not grow up in a small mid-west town (as I did not) you *know* this town--it is as much an icon of America as a Norman Rockwell painting--and Keillor is the guide you want by your side. He also has a brilliant ear for dialog. . . remembering, for example, that an 8 year old boy who is imitating an old man ends every sentence with the phrase "by cracky." I like many of Keillor's other books, but this is certainly my favorite.
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Summary: Charming, small-town storytelling
Review: 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.
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Summary: Just a marvelous book!
Review: 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.
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