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Summary: Lake Wobegon Summer 1956
Review: LAKE WOBEGON - SUMMER 1956 is a delightful fictional autobiographical thigh slapper of a 50s summer in one boy's life in a very conservative Minnesota town, watched over by Jesus himself, standing side by side with the author's granddad while passing out judgments.
Although the main character in an autobiography is the writer himself, his intense focus however is on his cousin Kate and the trials and tribulations of her love life with the local hero, a talented baseball pitcher whose family puts hers to shame. The 14-year-old Gary, who composes pornographic poetry to fend off the school bully, adores the 17-year-old Kate for her boldness in standing firm against the conservative morality her overly religious family imposes on her. We sense a message that the author tailors into the story how both Gary and Kate use their individual talents to try to escape the rigorous boredom of the pious country life, each in their own way. Gary succeeds in becoming the town's paper's sports writer and Kate gets her lover to marry her.
Unclear is the symbolic presence of his self-righteous older sister who is unrelenting in tormenting him. But pleasant is the array of eccentric and hilarious individuals with names worthy to be called dickensian, that populate his forsaken Midwestern town.
In a story full of anecdotal historical tidbits of a summer with doo-wop and baseball and poems and family gossip, Kate represents the symbol of many a country bumpkin trying to shake off the restraints put on her. Reading atheist verses "and worldly novels by Hemingway, Cummings, Steinbeck and Kerouac", she has chosen to live a life free from the religious rigors of Luthern doctrine and in Gary's company even visits a Roman Catholic service which gives Keillor the opportunity to mock the world of blatant superstitions the town (and the nation?) is enclosed by. During a two page comparison, he gives the reader also a chance to reflect on his or her own stance and the valor people associate with organized religion.
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Summary: Lake Wobegon: Summer 1956
Review: Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 reminds me of when i was young garys' age. All he has on his mind is girls, naked girls. He gets dirty magazines and reads them fantasizing about himself and his cousin Kate. Gary has an older sister that notices Gary reading his magazine, steals it from him, then uses to get him right where she wants him. She can do anything and everything and Gary must follow to stop the magazine from getting to his mother. After reading his magazines he writes his own little stories about his manhood and Kate. This book inspires me to read more of Keillors books because i can connect to Garys way of thinking and acting seeing as I remember them days as if it was yesturday.
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Summary: Juvenilia is worth the effort
Review: My dad was from Albany, Minnesota; my mom lives in Freeport and was raised on a farm outside St. Rosa. All of these small towns are mentioned in Keillor's Wobegon stories, usually in connection with the amateur baseball teams who play the Wobegon Whippets.
I've read all of the Wobegon books. I've even read WLT: A RADIO ROMANCE, THE BOOK OF GUYS and WE ARE STILL MARRIED. And I love Keillor's monologues on Prairie Home Companion.
I can also relate to this novel in another way. I grew up wanting to be a writer. I wrote stories for fun, showed them off to my friends, got some of them published in the high school newspaper. So I can understand why Gary, the protagonist, is so thrilled when he receives an Underwood typewriter from his uncle. Keillor peppers the book with samples of the stories and poems Gary writes on the Underwood. They're the most remarkable aspect of the book. Keillor manages to "overwrite" just as a fourteen-year-old would, showing glimpses of a remarkable talent.
Now for what bothers me. Gary peruses dirty books, albeit camouflaged by the National Geographic, right in front of his Sanctified Brethren father. Somehow I doubt a skittish little nerd would have this kind of guts. Gary is also obsessed with his kissing cousin Kate. He writes stories about ravishing her, which his sister, a holy roller who'd embarrass Billy Graham with her overzealousness, almost always reads. .. I haven't been quite this repulsed since I read Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King, another scatological endeavor.
Read the book for Keillor's masterful job portraying Gary's youthful writing, but hold your nose when you encounter Kate.
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Summary: It's NOT a Lake Wobegon book, and that's not a BAD thing.
Review: One of Garrison's best, and most personal. The Lake Wobegon setting is unimportant. Other than The Whippets having a pivotal role in the story, the familiar names and places of Lake Wobegon are minor players. This is a wonderful coming-of-age story, often funny, often uncomfortable. Gary, the 14-year-old narrator, shares the angst that ALL typical boys of 14 go through, as well as a very unique angst of being a young teenager in a strict religious household and a less-than-popular kid.Of course it's full of fart jokes and sex...he's fourteen, for cryin' out loud! Leave them out, and you don't have an honest portrait! If you're expecting warm, fuzzy stories of how great small-town life is, steer clear. If you're not afraid of being a little uncomfortable as a 14-year-old is frank about everything that goes through his mind (and I mean EVERYTHING), then you'll enjoy this.
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Summary: Needs a PG-17 Rating!
Review: Please be warned: If you enjoyed family style listening to Keillor's older feel-good radio-style vinettes of Lake Wobegon, such as "Faith", "Rhubarb," and the like, DON'T play this for the family without reviewing it first. You are in for a suprise.
Garrison has made off-color jokes in his monologues to a degree before, but not to this degree, freely talking about erections and much more here.
And if he's not talking about the sexual awakings of boyhood, it seems he's giving a backhand jab to the "Sanctified Brethren."
I tried, I really tried to pass over those parts (as I was listening to it on CD,) but they came so frequently, I just had to turn it off and leave it alone.
Hopefully, Keillor will unburden himself in this CD, and get back to the family-oriented wholesomeness that I had come to love him for.
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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!
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Summary: Are the puritans missing the point?
Review: Several of the reviews mention that Gary's obsession with porn occupies too much of this book and that its depiction is too graphic. But if the porn wasn't so present and so vivid, would we recognize the influence it has on Gary's own writing style? In fact, it struck me that the readers who were so put off by all the porn didn't even mention how funny it was that Gary's sportswriting started to take on characteristics of the porn he'd been reading. Maybe they didn't find that aspect of the book as funny as I did. Or maybe they missed it entirely. Maybe it was too subtle. Maybe there should have been MORE porn, in order for them to get the point... I think this book is hilarious and charming, porn and all.
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Summary: Is This Lake Wobegon?
Review: Since when do all the Lake Wobegon husbands cheat on their wives and teenage lust is transformed to unnecessary pornography. The writing is nice but the story weak and uneven. It's no wonder this book got panned in the press. And it's a shame since Keillor is wonderful at rendering nostalgia, human quirks and frailties in a way that is so comforting and yet makes us laugh at ourselves. I have the sneaking suspicion that Keillor's editors just publish whatever he writes rather than make useful suggestions regarding plot and tone.
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Summary: Good concept -- but ultimately disappointing
Review: 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.
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Summary: Light-hearted and funny
Review: The major character in this humorous novel is named Gary, going through the early phases of adolescence in the summer of 1956. I remember 1956 with great affection, and could identify with the themes. Gary has an increasing interest in the opposite sex, but that interest collides head-on with his fundamentalist Christian upbringing, leading to feelings of shame and guilt. Meanwhile, he is closely monitored by his older sister who has appointed herself enforcer of his morality. The situations depicted are believable, mostly true to the time period (we owned an Underwood typewriter, a Mercury auto and a house with a porch, all closely similar to the ones on the cover). Keillor makes some good points about religion versus natural biological urges, but in some ways I felt it was a put-down of Christianity -- a more reasonable and wiser Christian than Gary's sister might have added balance. Nevertheless, it was one of the more enjoyable books I've read this year. I laughed often and greatly enjoyed the reading.
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