A national holiday in Lake Wobegon is always gaudy and joyful. But what is going on between Clint Bunsen and Miss Liberty?
Clint Buns... read full description
Clint Buns... read full description
reviews
Oct 17, 2008
Michael
rated it: 
With "Lake Wobegon Days" and "Leaving Home" Garrison Keillor took readers to the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, giving us memorable characters, some witty observations and some good natured humor. Those two novels are among my favorite books and I enjoy Keillor's monologues about "the little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve."
But in his last two Lake Wobegon novels, Keillor has the guy who could have been voted class clown More...
But in his last two Lake Wobegon novels, Keillor has the guy who could have been voted class clown More...
Jan 02, 2009
John
rated it: 
Fine book in the Garrison tradition. Depressing in a healthy way, and very older guy-focused. It made me wonder how a young person and/or a woman would react to it.
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Dec 27, 2008
Tracy
rated it:
Let's put it this way: if I were married to Garrison Keillor, I'd be a wee trifle concerned by his sudden fascination with adultery. This one (like the last) is pretty well focused there. C'mon, Garrison: this isn't what we read your books for!
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Nov 04, 2011
Doreen
rated it:
Having just enjoyed an evening listening to Keillor's mellow voice tell stories on stage, I went out and got a couple of his books from the library. His voice emerges from the pages of this novel -- telling about good-hearted, hard-working people in a small Minnesota town that embraces "family values". Clint is the main character. A 60-year-old auto mechanic, he has for 6 years been the chairman of the committee that organizes Lake Wobegon's big 4th of July parade (it made it onto a CN
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Jul 31, 2011
Jane
rated it:
I was introduced to Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion by my sister in law on a visit to Tuscon in 1986. I loved listening to that radio show and took tapes of it back with me to Australia. I was excited to read his first book Lake Wobegon Days and it didn't disappoint with its laugh out loud moments. I also read We are still married and thoroughly enjoyed that collection too.
After a lull from reading Keillor of a mere 20 years, I picked up Liberty from my library recently and wa More...
After a lull from reading Keillor of a mere 20 years, I picked up Liberty from my library recently and wa More...
Dec 11, 2009
Judith
rated it: 
This is the most delightful, fun, entertaining audio book. Nobody can project the characters like Garrison Keillor. I have always enjoyed Keillor. As he ages, his books get more sympathetic to the problems facing middle-aged people, and therefore, ever more striking the chords in my middle-aged heart. His characters are all too aware that they are ridiculous, and yet, they want what all of us want: meaning and dignity, integrity and wisdom. But being human, they also lust to commit all of
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Nov 09, 2009
Tlnorz
rated it:
I was originally going to give this book a 3 just because there is not a way to give a book a 3.5. It is a short, silly, book but I keep thinking about some of its themes so it must have affected me some. Any book that you think about days/weeks after you read it is worth more than a 3, or a 3.5. Maybe it's a 3.85. Heck, I'll just give it a 4.
Like all of Keillor's book, this one has plenty of laughs, plenty of dumb humor, and some potty humor too.
This book has a lot More...
Like all of Keillor's book, this one has plenty of laughs, plenty of dumb humor, and some potty humor too.
This book has a lot More...
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Sep 01, 2009
Sue
rated it:
Garrison Keillor’s great talent is the vignette, the brief look at human beings caught in defining moments, or perhaps in moments of utter triviality. The results are memorable.
Maybe the problem in “Liberty” is that he is much less skillful at linking those vignettes. In his zeal to create action, he ended up with a near potboiler.
The story centers around 60-year-old Clint Bunsen, whose greatest role in Lake Wobegon has been management of the July Fourth parade. But he ha More...
Maybe the problem in “Liberty” is that he is much less skillful at linking those vignettes. In his zeal to create action, he ended up with a near potboiler.
The story centers around 60-year-old Clint Bunsen, whose greatest role in Lake Wobegon has been management of the July Fourth parade. But he ha More...
Oct 23, 2008
MB
rated it: 
While I really enjoyed Pontoon, this book lacked Pontoon's hilarity and just didn't do much for me. I felt kind of depressed when I'd finished it. To me, the book's humor seems slanted towards men, particularily men undergoing mid-life crisises??? Maybe it's just me...
Are there any women out there who enjoyed this book? I'm curious as to what you thought.
Are there any women out there who enjoyed this book? I'm curious as to what you thought.
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Jan 22, 2009
Stephanee
rated it: 
I read this because my sister is always raving about Garrison Keillor and how funny he is. I can't stand to listen to his voice--too breathy or something but, I saw this book on the NY Times Bestseller list, so I thought I'd give 'ol Garrison a try. Well, it was entertaining at first. I could definitely see myself, my fellow Grand Marais-ans, and lots and lots of my relatives in this book. That part of the humor I get, and find very humorous. But, then the story took off in a very non-Garri
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May 19, 2011
Barbara
rated it:
This novel is an anatomy of a midlife crisis - Clint Bunsen, 60 years old, suddenly discovers that he is not who he thought he was for most of his life, and he yearns to make a change. A mail-order DNA test reveals that he is not a stodgy Norwegian, but rather, a hot-blooded Spaniard, and he is determined to live up to his new found heritage. He is chairing his last Independence Day parade, a responsibility he has taken seriously for 6 years, striving to create a newsworthy production. He is,
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Mar 24, 2011
Mobill76
rated it:
I'm the protagonist in the novel, so I thought it was great. It's amazing how well Keillor continues to mine Lake Wobegon for all it's worth. It seemed so superficial in the beginning. It was just a setting for some radio monologues. It's proving to be as detailed and epic as Middle Earth - and much funnier. The book is, in fact, an expansion of a classic 4th of July "News from Lake Wobegon" where the Statue of Liberty in the parade wore nothing underneath her robe. Clint Busen's dilem
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Mar 23, 2011
J.D.
rated it:
Another interesting story from Lake Wobegon by Garrison Keillor. It truly amazes me how he is able to continually come up with new stories from a town that has had very little change. The stories in the books are generally a little more racy from the weekly update in Prairie Home Companion and we are able to delve into it a little further. In this story, we see Lake Wobegon experience national attention from their amazing parade they do each year and all the drama you could expect behind the
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Jan 27, 2009
Tricia
rated it:
I enjoy National Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion and Garrison Keillor's stories about Lake Wobegon. However, an entire book on the subject is a bit boring and, I am sorry to say, not very funny.
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Sep 24, 2008
Ann
rated it:
great quick read. especially fun if you are a prairie home companion fan. warning though there are a few racey parts and it is a little weird to here garrisom keillor's voice narrating them in your head!
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Dec 11, 2009
Gary
rated it:
Although some of his sentences are long rambling narratives, Garrison Keillor writes his stories like he's speaking them, in his soft rambling Minnesota Lake Wobegon voice, and one gets the feeling of sitting in the Chatterbox Cafe listening to them. In Liberty, The Fourth of July is fast approaching and Clint Bunsen, soon to be the deposed chairperson of Lake Wobegon's 4th of July planning committee, wants this festival day to be more than a small town celebration; he wants it worthy of a minut
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Nov 12, 2008
Holly
rated it:
I admit that I didn't finish the book, but I really had no desire to finish it. There were a few hilarious moments, but then some turns to the story I really didn't care for.
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Jun 25, 2010
Joshua
rated it:
I love Garrison Keillor. I often listen to A Prairie Home Companion and have even been to a couple live broadcasts, but there is something about his Lake Wobegon books that make me uneasy. I had the same problem with Woody Allen films; they just hit too close to home for comfort. With Woody it was the problem that he new all about my neuroses and angst. He displayed it on the screen for all to see. I shrank away from his works for a very long time.
As I aged (and sought profess More...
As I aged (and sought profess More...
Jan 30, 2009
Laura
rated it:
After listening to Keillor's Pontoon released earlier this year, I couldn't wait for Liberty to come out. The two books have little in common, other than being set in Lake Wobegon. This one follows the midlife crisis of Clint Bunsen. Although Keillor does have some fun descriptive tangents, I found Clint to be boring and predictable, which I suppose could be found darkly comic in an ultra-dry way. Affair with a young woman, check. Wanting to leave the Midwest for Califoria in a mustang converti
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Oct 27, 2010
Brian
rated it:
Clint Bunsen is the chairman of the 4th of July Committee. The previous year the festivities were a huge success--so huge Clint is determined to outdo it even though it means alienating some important people of Lake Wobegon. Then things start going bad for Clint. The community begins to rebel against Clint's plans, (perhaps last year's festivities were too good. To top it all off, a DNA test reveals that he's more Spanish than Norwegian. Clint goes over the deep end and has a mid-life crisi
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Jan 17, 2010
Gary
rated it:
Nothing new about Lake Wobegon (have listened for ~20 years), and even the plot 'twists' were dull.
Even the committee's cowardly acceptance of a leader's threatened self-sacrifice was already done, when the Rev. proposed an ironic pay cut.
The real triumph is Keillor's MASTERFULLY creative (& cumulative, since it's upgraded in almost every single chapter) list of what could be included in a July 4th celebration. It's honestly a breathtakingly imaginative account of a mythi More...
Even the committee's cowardly acceptance of a leader's threatened self-sacrifice was already done, when the Rev. proposed an ironic pay cut.
The real triumph is Keillor's MASTERFULLY creative (& cumulative, since it's upgraded in almost every single chapter) list of what could be included in a July 4th celebration. It's honestly a breathtakingly imaginative account of a mythi More...
Feb 08, 2010
Gina
rated it:
I think I read this in 2008. I seem to remember listening to the audio at the laundromat while knitting on a Christmas stocking.
As much as I love Garrison Keillor and the news from Lake Wobegon, I just never enjoy the novels as much as I hope to. I think the stories work so much better as short pieces. I remember sometime before this was released, hearing the story of Clint's parade and affair (I don't remember exact details) on PHC and thoroughly enjoying it, but it seemed to l More...
As much as I love Garrison Keillor and the news from Lake Wobegon, I just never enjoy the novels as much as I hope to. I think the stories work so much better as short pieces. I remember sometime before this was released, hearing the story of Clint's parade and affair (I don't remember exact details) on PHC and thoroughly enjoying it, but it seemed to l More...
Jul 27, 2011
I really like the bizarre realism in Mr Keillor's work - the farmers who want to spread muck durign the parade, the catholic choir who force their way into the events, really ring true for us small town dwellers I am sure.
Apart from the adultery Clints internal angst echoes well the feelings of many men in long term relationships - I love the way he coins expressions - his marriage is not a desert, it does rain sometimes.
This is a light and quick read that will, like all the Lake Wobegon novel More...
Apart from the adultery Clints internal angst echoes well the feelings of many men in long term relationships - I love the way he coins expressions - his marriage is not a desert, it does rain sometimes.
This is a light and quick read that will, like all the Lake Wobegon novel More...
Jan 11, 2011
Skyring
rated it:
Love Garrison Keillor and his stories of Lake Wobegon. Here's Clint Bunsen, sixty years old, a good mechanic, a fantastic parade organiser and a wobbly husband. There are moves to replace him, he's pondering a variety of futures, the big parade is shaping up to be a disaster and there are guns and crazy people involved.
And a young and occasionally nude young lady.
I enjoyed this one a lot. You can hear, at times, Garrison telling the story aloud, a chuckle in his voice and a More...
And a young and occasionally nude young lady.
I enjoyed this one a lot. You can hear, at times, Garrison telling the story aloud, a chuckle in his voice and a More...
Dec 27, 2008
Christine
rated it:
Person crushed by rigidity of small town. Narrative boils down to one magnificient, glorious day when chaos reigns.
Some good nuggets of description that make you pause and laugh, though not as many as PONTOON.
Although the book is still has its moments, it is very formulaic. Main character is well flushed out with all his/her "contradictions". S/he doesn't quite fit into the mold of Lake Wobegon. There's the side characters, the poke at the churches, the hippie More...
Some good nuggets of description that make you pause and laugh, though not as many as PONTOON.
Although the book is still has its moments, it is very formulaic. Main character is well flushed out with all his/her "contradictions". S/he doesn't quite fit into the mold of Lake Wobegon. There's the side characters, the poke at the churches, the hippie More...
Jul 28, 2011
Derek
rated it:
Wry, witty, dare I say Keilloresque? All the usual touches that characterise Lake Wobegon stories are present and correct. The central dilemma for our hero: whether to make up for a "wrong turn" he took decades ago by suddenly doing something rash and headstrong which he could live to regret. This against the backdrop of a very colourful 4th Of July parade which he has organised - for the last time. The last two-thirds of the narrative, or thereabouts, take place on the day of the para
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Apr 08, 2010
Angeluismanzueta
rated it:
this book is about a man named clint, who prepares for the fourth of july, and has an extrodianary life, since he is an auto mechanic, and plans to runs for congress.
i would connect this to, text to world, because many people have a hard life, and cofusing as well, because clint has a life of mixed options, with mechanic on one side but also congress on the other, as if he has two different personalitys.
i would rate this book three stars because, the book to me seems very vague, and More...
i would connect this to, text to world, because many people have a hard life, and cofusing as well, because clint has a life of mixed options, with mechanic on one side but also congress on the other, as if he has two different personalitys.
i would rate this book three stars because, the book to me seems very vague, and More...
Aug 23, 2011
Ron
rated it:
Will Clint Bunsen runaway to California to relive his youth? Will Viola Tors take over the 4th of July committee? And what is up with Art and the Governor?
I loved this new installment of Lake Wobegon and all its characters. Just what the doctor ordered for the middle of winter. From the normal lives of the Norweigan Lutherans to the nuttiness of Clint's new flame, it made me laugh out loud. A lot of it is predictable, but still great fun. The scene near the end with the Governor and Miss L More...
I loved this new installment of Lake Wobegon and all its characters. Just what the doctor ordered for the middle of winter. From the normal lives of the Norweigan Lutherans to the nuttiness of Clint's new flame, it made me laugh out loud. A lot of it is predictable, but still great fun. The scene near the end with the Governor and Miss L More...
Oct 06, 2009
Julie
rated it:
This is a great book with a lot of personality. It focuses on a man who is now 60 years old and realizes he took a wrong turn in his life when he was 22. The book is set in a small mid-western town around the 4th of July. It does a hilarious job of showing the man's weaknesses and strengths. He has a daunting quandry set before him. Should he continue life as is or run away with a beautiful young woman and change his life forever? I learned about the thought processes that can go through your he
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Jan 21, 2009
Enoch
rated it:
Garrison Keillor weaves another memorable story from Lake Wobegon. His storytelling leads shows us the life of Clint Bunson, a mechanic who get's no respect from his town and life. While searching for a way out he finds a young psychic whom he feels a spiritual connection. Let the middle-age, Norwegian Hillarity ensue. It's nice to be brought back to a small-town simple time, when so much of the world is fast paced and overgrown!!
Warning: this book does contain a intimate scenes of t More...
Warning: this book does contain a intimate scenes of t More...
