Wobegon Boy: 6

Yep, it's true. There are great writers out there who can tell a great story, make us laugh, make us think and make fun of us foolish mortals - all at the same time. Mr. Keillor is a pro at all of the above. Hats off to his efforts!

Hands Down, This is Garrison Keillor's best novel. A book about the power of love, the dread of family, and the hope we all have to be better. Keillor reintroduces us with some of the characters of his last book" Lake Wobegon Days, and takes their struggles even further. Our hero John goes on a journey of self-discovery with the funnies of predicaments, and ends up in a much better place in the end.Read this book, it's really a true piece of work from a great master storyteller.

This a brilliant comic novel, featuring the adventures of John Tollefson. He has escaped Lutheran Minnesota to live in upstate New York, where he has taken the job of a local radio station manager. In between return visits to the mythical Wobegon, John romances historian Alida Freeman and embarks on a disastrous business venture with a New Age builder. And that's the plot, such as it is. There isn't a strong narrative thread running throughout this book, and I think that this is one of its strengths. Like many people's lives, John Tollefson's doesn't run to order. This might make for a very incoherent novel, but Keillor carries this off exceptionally well. The humour and wit are exceptional, and make 'Wobegon Boy' a huge pleasure to read. I was sorely disappointed that the book actually had to end, since it had easily put me into a very buoyant mood. Exceptional.

This is the cleverest book I have read in a long time. Snappy prose and extremely witty. A true must-read, Keillor has a literary gift.

Splendid .... Keillor's best work since Lake Wobegon Days by a mile. Wobegon Boy takes us back to "the town that time forgot," but things are different this time -- we get to look at it through the eyes of a troubled expatriate, swooping down by helicopter from the "real world" with John Tollefson at the controls. In doing so we come to love and understand the place better than ever. It's strangely satisfying to watch Keillor charge out into the world holding the banner of Wobegonian ethos and come back victorious -- as a reader, I could only bask in chivalrous satisfaction between the laughs (and oh boy, are there laughs). Tender and sharp and hilarious and wise, Wobegon Boy is a work of dazzling maturity and insight. Putting it aside for even a moment was painful, and I miss it now that it's gone.