Lake Wobegon Days [Large Print]

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.

I'm a huge fan of Keillor's Wobegon radio stuff, and the stories here were mostly as good as the ones on the radio. But it loses a little not being read by him. His voice is so good and his story-telling so engaging, I missed that a little. But being familiar with his voice, I could "hear" him reading it anyway.

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.

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.

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.