Word: wobegons
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...doubt about it--Garrison Keillor knows how to tell a story. Whether he is amusing listeners nationwide over National Public Radio or entrancing readers in his written stories, Keillor and his unique sense of humor remain a staple part of American life in many homes. His latest novel, Wobegon Boy, follows in Keillor's beloved tradition of nostalgic Midwestern humor that tries to pine for the days of long ago, without becoming too preachy. The novel is a virtual gallery of detailed portraits on how modern life can be disconcerting, and even shocking, to the good old people of Lake...
...look past these expected barriers, Wobegon Boy can prove to be quite an entertaining read. But the question remains--can the average, non-Midwestern reader appreciate Keillor's morality-twinged humor...
Keillor's charmingly lucid writing, however, cannot hide the gaping flaws of the plot and main characters in Wobegon Boy. Almost halfway through the novel, a magazine with a front-page picture and article appears one day, depicting John as a "portly Lutheran Lothario" who "tried to 'psychologically seduce'" women at the public radio station where he works. However, up to that point in the book, readers are lead to believe that John is kind, quiet, in love with his girlfriend Alida, and not coming close to stepping on anyone's toes along the way. This sudden, almost violent disclosure...
...imagination halfway between Iceland and Greenland, is not something novelist (and former TIME contributor) Brad Leithauser bothers to explain. If you don't like Freeland, the gray and chilly outpost of which he is the sole curator of history, customs and current events, then chase your moonbeams in Lake Wobegon or your copperheads in Yoknapatawpha County...
...also invented a town where all the children are above average. If all those "drones" with salaries "in the mid five digits" he describes flee the corporate world, who will be left to pay Keillor for spinning yarns and reading poetry on public radio? The good folks of Lake Wobegon will have to put their heads together and start forming an economic-development commission. JANET ROHLER Ames, Iowa Via E-mail...