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Lake Wobegon Days

3.59 of 5 stars 3.59 · rating details · 4,037 ratings · 310 reviews

If you've ever marveled at the simple elegance of a weather-worn gazebo resting in a small-town America park, or sat down in a Main-Street diner and felt right at home with the locals, then you'll know the warm feelings and hidden charms found in Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon Days.

Celebrating the quirks and idiosyncrasies of small-town America, part town history, part f

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Hardcover, 337 pages

Published September 5th 1985 by Viking Penguin, Inc. (first published 1985)

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Books Set in Minnesota

2nd out of 57 books — 26 voters

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

The Armchair Traveler's Guide to Invented Towns and Countries

13th out of 99 books — 37 voters

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May 14, 2013 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

Ah, I miss the old days, those innocent Goodreads days of pretzels and beer, Wittgenstein and Gertrude Stein, and of course, Celebrity Death Matches. So I'm reviving one of my personal favourites. I call it...

CELEBRITY DEATH MATCH No 83.

BOY GEORGE : Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome Meine Damen und Herren, Mesdames et Messieurs, Ladies and Gentlemen! Guten abend, bon soir, good evening! Wie geht's? Comment ca va? Do you feel good? Ich bin euer confrencier, je suis votre compere, I am your host! Lea...more

18 likes · like · see review

Jul 22, 2008 Elaine rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone, but especially those who survived the 1940s and 50s.

Shelves: classics-or-should-be

As a child of the 60s, I have gotten used to books having to be dark and meaningful. Happy endings are rare and suspect. So it is with pleasure that I discovered Garrison Keillor's books. He makes me smile, sometimes nostalgically, but sometimes just out of clear enjoyment of someone saying what I've always felt but never knew how to put into words. I encourage readers to give this book a chance. How anyone can read about Lake Wobegon's citizenry and not love this book is beyond me. A church nam...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jeaneane After I read this review it came to me that these are the kind of books I love, those that can say what I have wanted to say, but couldn't find the vo...more
Jul 22, 2008 11:35am

Elaine I was introduced to him one day going to my sister's house in the middle of winter--must have been close to Christmas. He was singing "We Wish You a M...more
Jul 23, 2008 07:52am

Jan 31, 2007 erin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: nostalgists, cynics, introverts

I'm amazed that Garrison Keillor is seen as the written equivalent of Norman Rockwell; His stories are only nostalgic if you aren't paying attention. The Lake Wobegone of his childhood is a dark, oppressive place, where the laughs are generally at someone's expense and everlasting embarrassment. For those of us who identify, the grim humour and beautifully rendered stories evoke not nostalgia, but a satisfaction that those years are long past.

6 likes · like · see review

Nov 03, 2011 Michael Foley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-keillor, fiction-wobegon, fiction-norway, fiction-minnesota, fiction-humor

What is Lake Wobegon? Is it a place? Is it a state of mind? Is it nothing more than a nostalgic longing for times gone by? In his first Lake Wobegon novel, Garrison Keillor introduces us to his semi-autobiographical world of memory. He leaps between the present and past as he breathes life into his fictional Midwestern world. His characters are unique and interesting not because they are bigger than life, but because they could be your neighbor, your best friend, or even yourself. Lake Wobegon’s...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Donna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: humorous

This is sweet, funny, unbelievably poignant, from the man who began his career (I believe, at least to the extent of being well-known) on public radio, then branched out.

Because this is so purely American, and much of it set in the post-war years,I never tried to share it with my husband, because he was not born in the US and didn't move here or start learning English till the 70s, so I thought the retro nuances would be lost on him. However, when he heard a brief excerpt that Keillor recited on...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 27, 2007 Leslie is currently reading it Recommends it for: Anyone who enjoyed A Prairie Home Companion

Shelves: readingsporadicallyorinspurts

Garrison Keillor is a rambling kind of person/writer who just keeps spewing details and weaving threads in a fabric of Lake Wobegon. His somewhat satirical take on a small town, his own hometown - possibly, I still can't figure out if this is a work of fiction or not, and frankly I don't mind - reminds me of stephen leacock's sunshine sketches of a small town, nostalgia and humour, pride in one's hometown, made up or real. A book to be savoured, read in the right place.

"“Humankind knows no finer...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 19, 2013 Margitte rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: community-life

I loved it. Although it made me smile a lot, sometimes laughing out loud, it also had a almost neurotic undertone, but it never gets the better of the reader. The community of Lake Wobegone is described in so much detail, it is amazing. I skipped most of the footnotes in the end, since it became annoying to remember where I was in the book after having to read yet another footnote that was a chapter in itself. The characters are so all-American, yet it could have been our own neighborhood in Sou...more I loved it. Although it made me smile a lot, sometimes laughing out loud, it also had a almost neurotic undertone, but it never gets the better of the reader. The community of Lake Wobegone is described in so much detail, it is amazing. I skipped most of the footnotes in the end, since it became annoying to remember where I was in the book after having to read yet another footnote that was a chapter in itself. The characters are so all-American, yet it could have been our own neighborhood in South Africa. We played the same games, did the same silly teenage stuff and made the same stupid mistakes, debated the same religious and political divisions. I just realized how very American we actually are! lolol.

Of course we do not experience the deep, dark, hibernating winters and I had a good belly-laugh for many of the descriptions in the book, like this one: "Out on the country road, you can see Norwegian bachelor farmers have hung out their sheets. "When a bachelor farmer begins to smell himself, you know winter is over," says Clarence."

And this one: "One day it dawned on her (Mrs. Magendanz) that he must have an outhouse in the garage. The Dahls had moved off the farm into town only two years before. He had found that his bowels wouldn't budge on a flush toilet, so he dug a pit in the garage and was using it twice day."

And there was Bud who found digging his grandmother's grave too tough a job, so he used one stick of dynamite to get it over and done with.

And Margaret who worried that her soon-to-be husband might be a little too dull since he was way too quiet. Then she decided to kiss him in the neck during their visit to the movies in 1957, at the exact moment that Dracula bend over a young girl. She "found out that he had deep reserves of nervous energy. In one second, he distributed the box of popcorn over six rows of seats."

The book is about a community of about 800 people living in Lake Wobegone, a non-existent town, describing their history, hardships, humor, religions, traditions, thoughts, idiosyncrasies, everything in a lot of detail. It probably is one of the best books to read for immigrants to the country. It depicts the very heart of the people of America and it was done splendidly! I loved the down-to-earthiness of the characters, their honest stories, unpretentiousness. It really feels like meeting the core of real people who makes up the great nation at last!

I really really loved it!
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Jul 06, 2012 Joshua Guest rated it 4 of 5 stars

I laughed out loud. And as much as I enjoy laughing, I don't like to give many people the satisfaction of knowing that they got a laugh out of me. But Garrison Keillor earned every drawn chortle. My two favorite qualities of this book: (1) There's no plot or any really important character, so you can just open up to any page and start reading as if you're just listening to a senile old man reminisce. This quality also allowed for me to skim some boring parts guiltlessly. (2) The footnotes are so...more

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Mar 03, 2012 April rated it 3 of 5 stars

If you like Garrison Keillor's radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, then you'll like this. It's essentially the same thing, but in writing —a lot of meandering vignettes with very good descriptions of small town characters and small town life, much of it universal, quirky, humorous, and sad, a very nostalgic feeling sprinkled throughout.

There isn't any huge plot driving the book or overarching theme or message. It really does just meander. So if you're looking for a book you can't put down, som...more

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Jun 03, 2011 Amber added it

Shelves: read-multiple-times

Picture me sitting on a train reading this book, getting to the passage where the boys are in the classroom at lunchtime and the headteacher farts nearby and acts as if nothing happened. Gary makes his friend fall to pieces with laughter because the teacher demands to know what is so funny, and Gary says something like "it smells like a badger fart". The effect on his friend - I think he says something like: ”I’ve never had such an impressive(explosive? Can’t remember the line properly) effect o...more

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Feb 26, 2011 Eric Sundquist rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dear Garrison Keillor,

I read your book and liked it a lot. It took me a while to get through it, though. First I started reading it a couple of years ago, but I got so confused in the first few pages' footnotes about how many meters apart everything in town was that I thought it was going to be a boring book and quit. I started reading it again around August, and when I realized that you were just being cheeky, I quickly picked up on the style and began my enjoyment. I try not to be an obnoxious...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 29, 2009 Kathryn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

Garrison Keillor is the originator and host of A Prairie Home Companion, a radio show that has been running more or less constantly since 1974; he also hosts The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor, a five-minute radio segment (usually heard on NPR stations) that is also reproduced in written form on the Internet (via a link on my weblog, if you want to see it). As part of each episode of A Prairie Home Companion, he gives the comedic storytelling segment, “News from Lake Wobegon.” In 1984 he...more Garrison Keillor is the originator and host of A Prairie Home Companion, a radio show that has been running more or less constantly since 1974; he also hosts The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor, a five-minute radio segment (usually heard on NPR stations) that is also reproduced in written form on the Internet (via a link on my weblog, if you want to see it). As part of each episode of A Prairie Home Companion, he gives the comedic storytelling segment, “News from Lake Wobegon.” In 1984 he gathered up a lot of his Lake Wobegon material from the radio show, added to it, and produced his first book, Lake Wobegon Days, which I am now reviewing. (Ja, I liked it.)

Lake Wobegon is a town in Minnesota, orginially settled by New Englanders, with a large contingent of Norwegians and Germans who later showed up. The town is not shown on any map, though it’s supposed to be a little to the north and east of St. Cloud Minnesota; and the county that Lake Wobegon is located in, Mist County, does not show up on the maps, either. Everyone in town is either Catholic (going to Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility) or Lutheran, except for those who belong to the Sanctified Brethren. With a population of only about 800 per the last census, not much happens in Lake Wobegon, which suits most of the hard-working citizenry just fine, as they are fairly suspicious of anything new.

The book is made up of comedic personal recollections of the author, on a variety of topics; the early chapters deal with the history of Lake Wobegon (named New Albion by the early New England settlers in 1852), including the New Albion College (which lasted only about six years, and ceased operations after a student was killed by a bear). Later chapters weave back and forth from the mid-19th century to 1984, with the same last names appearing over and over (as is right, with small town history), and with the author speaking of his own family, his schooling (he was born in 1942, which makes him 16 years older than me), the Norwegian bachelor farmers outside of town, theological issues between the Catholics, the Lutherans, and the Sanctified Brethren (the author is one of the latter), the disaffected youth (there’s not much to do in town, once one is past the age of about fifteen), and whatever else the author can think to mention about the town. So, there really is no plot; and the book is rarely laugh-out-loud funny; the humor is quite dry and quite muted (the kind where you nudge the person next to you, and say, “Listen to this one!”), as benefits Minnesota (I’ve been told that the only spices Minnesota recognizes are salt and pepper, and they aren’t too sure about the pepper).

Oddly enough, the well-known characterization of Lake Wobegon as a place where “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average” does not appear in the book; that is from the radio show. And, finally, for those who have read the book, they may wish to go to the April 4, 2009 issue of The Onion (available online), which noted “Two Dozen More Bodies Found In Lake Wobegon”.(less)

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Aug 29, 2008 Shaindel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of Keillor, Midwesterners

I love Garrison Keillor. Being from the frigid Midwest (okay, Indiana's not as cold as Minnesota), I always feel at home reading Keillor. I discuss that in a little bit in an interview here:

http://www.outsiderwriters.org/conten...

when asked if having a poem on The Prairie Home Companion website means more if you're from the Midwest.

Lake Wobegon Days = fun, humorous, and heartwarming.

1 like · like · see review

Nov 22, 2009 Stephanie Griffin rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of "A Prairie Home Companion"

LAKE WOBEGON DAYS, the fictional tales of a small Minnesota town, was written by Garrison Keillor in 1985. Keillor is the host of the popular “A Prairie Home Companion” radio show.
Lake Wobegon is full of hard-stock people of Norwegian and German descent, brimming with endearing quirkiness. There are the same locations mentioned on “Prairie”: the Chatterbox Café, Bunsen Motors, Ralph’s Grocery, the Lutheran Church, the Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility Church.
The residents of Lake Wobegon go...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Chana rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american, family-life, received-through-bookcrossing

This book has not been rated.

At first I thought it was interesting and funny and nostalgic, a little sharp tongued. But, as I read, my opinion of the book kept dropping, taking a very sharp drop on the chapter "news" with the "95 Theses 95". That piece of writing was so bitter, sour, pitiful (as in pity poor me, I've been twisted by my parents and my upbringing, I can't get my mother's voice out of my head). Why is that piece of writing in this book? Certainly it can't be something he aired on t...more

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Apr 23, 2009 Gordon Gauss rated it 5 of 5 stars

Spending many years in Minnesota it is difficult to escape the works of Keillor. Lake Wobegon becomes a Saturday evening ritual. The characters, although fictional become real. You recognize someone you know in almost every program. Oh yes, this is not Television but Radio performed at it's finest.
To show you how real it is to some people, when I moved to Southern California and was standing in Ralph's Supermarket (Ralph's prett good grocery on the program),
I was wearing a Lake Wobegon Whippets...more

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Mar 20, 2009 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was probably the only book I've ever read where the narrator's voice in my head was not my own. It was Garrison Keillor's! If you enjoy Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion radio show, then you will almost certainly enjoy this book. It is one HUGE dose of Lake Wobegon. Not only that, his anecdotes are filled with much more un-pc humor than the show features, what with swears and murders making it into the mix. I especially enjoyed his tales of childhood, as they brought me back to my own- not...more

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Nov 02, 2012 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Small Town Folk? Radio Listeners?

Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: The Ultimate Reading List - Humor

Shelves: humor-and-comedy, ultimate-reading-list, non-fiction, fiction, literary-fiction, novels, short-stories

A friend of mine saw I was reading this book and expressed surprise; she didn't think this would be something I'd like. "So you think a big city gal like me can't appreciate small town charm?" "Yup," she answered. I'd love to prove her wrong, because I'm perverse that way and hate to admit she knows me that well--but... well. I gather it helps if you've listened to Garrison Keilor narrating The Prairie Home Companion on radio--I have not.

More than a few reviewers, even the complementary ones, h...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Sean rated it 2 of 5 stars

Ugh. I still can't believe I read this. In my own defense, it was for a class in library school. I had to read something in the "humor" category and I think there were limited choices. At any rate, it was actually not as bad as the radio show, mostly because I didn't have to hear Keillor's voice braying in my ear. I don't know...maybe you need to be Midwestern to get his brand of humor. My professor polished up the annotation I wrote and it came out looking like this:

"History, culture, and relig...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Nick rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys sophisticated humor

Recommended to Nick by: My dad

Shelves: fiction

"Where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."
This is one of the many catchphrases one hears when listening to The News from Lake Wobegon.

This book represents all that was and is Lake Wobegon. It takes you to the days of the town's founding as New Albion, and how economic woes across the country struck the town.

It later found salvation from Norwegians and Germans, who make up the town.

This book is full of tiny funny stories just like you...more

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Feb 11, 2011 Kathy Hiester rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had heard about this author for years, but never had the urge to read it. I picked it up on a whim when Better World Books was having a sale and I needed one more book for round out a nice ten books. This book, Lake Wobegone, is funny, even though his political opinions are a little on the heavy side for me.

I genuinely liked the book, but I was disappointed that it was not funnier. I did laugh a little; but it came across as very somber.

Keillor should have toned down the extended annotation...more

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Feb 28, 2012 Patrick Reddick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Falling somewhere between fiction and not, Garrison Keillor’s recounting of his 'Lake Wobegon Days' is an amazing collection of stories. It’s interesting how much someone not yet out of college, perhaps still shedding the last skin of childhood, can be so reminiscent for their past. But even I experienced shades of Keillor’s descriptions of pet funerals in the backyard, the attraction to a girl even at a foolishly young age—how it felt so real, and just growing up.

I have no doubt 'Lake Wobegon D...more

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Nov 01, 2009 Brett rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classy-fiction

It's hard for me to know for sure if I can really separate my own nostolgia for small town upper plains life from my reading experience, so I guess my judgement is a little suspect on whether Keillor is a great author or not, but for my money, he is. Lake Wobegon Days finds that sweet spot for condemning the darkness in small town life, but celebrating the joys in equal measure. Keillor's voice is natural and unaffected--he doesn't mind talking about day-to-day items of life, and he builds his p...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars

A humorous and insightful reflection on growing up in a small agricultural town. Come on, we are talking Garrison Keillor here. No explanation needed.

I heard someplace that in Lake Wobegon, "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." What's not to love about a place like that?

I have had so many "Driveway Moments" listening to Garrison's story telling on NPR. The only reason I rated this book so low is due to what I call, the Sherlock Holmes...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Susan Odetta rated it 3 of 5 stars

And now for something completely different......having spent months in Moose Lake, Minnesota at my husband's birthplace and parents' home, and escaping in our motorhome before it got stupidly cold, I am getting many chuckles from this old book, found at CatTail Cove State Park near Lake Havasu, AZ.

Writing about Norwegians who settled northern Minnesota....."Our ancestors chose this place, tired from their long journey, sad for having left the motherland behind, and this place reminded them of th...more

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Jun 05, 2009 Tara rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was amusing enough in it's own right as a series of small-town-frontier-fun stories, until some synapse in my head fired and started comparing it to Steinbeck's Cannery Row or The Pastures of Heaven, also comprised of short 'life-in-a-micro-community' vignettes. Suddenly, the book seemed to fall short - there was no discernible central theme, and since the stories were neither chronological nor centered around a main character [though arguably the narrator provides one, the book operat...more

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Nov 19, 2011 John Martin added it

Shelves: did-not-finish

I know, I know, this is supposed to be a funny read.

But I spent three or four weeks wading through not-even-that-sweet treacle (all the time alternating with books I actually enjoyed reading) got to page 225 and thought: why am I inflicting this pain on myself? I'm 53, I couldn't have too many more years to waste. There didn't seem to be any story that was likely to resolved or otherwise. Clever words, yes; lots of nice anecdotes, yes; the odd chuckle, yes; but no belly laughs and no story that...more

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Nov 07, 2010 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: humor

I have become a fan of NPR's A Prairie Home Companion, especially Garrison Keillor's News from Lake Wobegon segment. So I decided to read one of his books. I started reading it, but felt something was missing--Keillor's voice. So I bought it on CD. It is unfortunate that the CD is an abridged edition, but I read the portions that were not on the CD.

There are numerous funny stories in this book. Not only Keillor's memorable characters are featured, but you also get the history of this fictitious...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Terri rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Okay, I admit it, I didn't finish this book. I almost never abandon a book, but I just found this one so incredibly dull. There were times when it was funny, and I can see how Keillor's writing could definitely appeal to some, but it just was not for me. I could not relate to the random, stream-of-consciousness writing. This is just a long string of stories about different characters in the town and surrounding area where Keillor grew up in Wisconsin. Some parts are funny, most just aren't.

I rea...more

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Nov 03, 2011 Dana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Minnesota is proud of this author - I had never read anything by him nor listened to his radio show - I also avoided the movie based on reviews. I decided to read it as it was recently recommended and I needed something lighter after my last two books. This book did make me laugh out loud - also gasp and get very depressed - and at times just plain bored - so I guess it gets 5 stars for the full range of emotions. Keiller makes a very interesting analysis on rural Minnesotans - Lutherans/Catholi...more

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About Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor (born Gary Edward Keillor on August 7, 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, columnist, musician, satirist, and radio personality.

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“If you lived today as if it were your last, you'd buy up a box of rockets and fire them all off, wouldn't you?” — 38 people liked it

“He was admired for never being at a loss for words and never wasting any either.” — 9 people liked it

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