My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
Leaving Home
Revisit the beguiling comic world of Lake Wobegon. In the first collection of Lake Wobegon monologues, Keillor tells readers ore about some of the people from Lake Wobegon Days and introduces some new faces. "Leaving Home is a book of exceptional charm . . . delightful . . . genuinely touching".--The Wall Street Journal. Available in early December.
Mass Market Paperbound, 288 pages
Published
April 1st 1990
by Penguin Books
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
944)
It took me about a year and half to finish this book, because it was on the bookshelf at Potbelly's (sandwich place) near my work, where I'd read a few pages once a month or so. Nobody ever moved my straw-wrapper bookmark, so I guess it wasn't a popular item. At any rate, this book is very much like Garrison Keillor's radio program. VERY much. In fact, I happened to hear him on "A Prairie Home Companion" a few months ago telling one the same stories that is in the book--which was p...more
Liberal-Minded Contraband @ Fort Knox, during Basic Training? I love Garrison, and even followed his example by traveling to Scandinavia in 1986. But heck, I was learning to kill Commies, after all, and practiced shooting at the Red-Star pop-up targets on the firing range. Fearing it would be taken away from me and getting into trouble, I tossed this book into a barrel, just before beginning my (4) months of Cavalry Scout (19-Delta) training, just to be safe. It was still Reagan's U.S. Army. How...more
Garrison Keillor is my favorite storyteller. He has an amazing gift of calming and soothing and forcing you to think and remember and contemplate and enjoy – all in the half stupor of contentment. Most of these stories don’t even have a tangible point. There’s no moral. There’s no lesson to be learned or underlying archetypal subplot defining a genre and exploding with controversy. They’re just stories about a small town in Minnesota and the people’s lives who live there. And part of that is the...more
As always with Keillor, my thoughts on his fiction are colored by being from a place pretty similar to the Lake Wobegone of his books. I always think of the people he writes about as "my people" and am therefore prepossesed to liking his work. Still, I don't think I'm way off base by saying this book has a lot of humanity in it.
If I have it right, all of the 30 or so chapters that make up Leaving Home are taken from Keillor's radio show and transcribed. As usual, they conc...more
If I have it right, all of the 30 or so chapters that make up Leaving Home are taken from Keillor's radio show and transcribed. As usual, they conc...more
Nick
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Lake Wobegon fans
Recommended to Nick by:
My dad
Shelves:
fiction
It's good. The book is just a bunch of stories from the show in 1987, so it doesn't read the same way as the author originally said it. There weren't the same emphasis on certain phrases. I've listened to Garrison many times before, so I can fill in a lot, but reading it straight through takes away from the experience. Additionally, the story about Carla at Homecoming I remember before. It was mentioned a few weeks ago on a show. I can understand reusing material, and it wasn't the whole story, ...more
I really tried to like this book because it was our literary club book for this month and because I gave a 2 star to the last book I read. Am I just to critical? This book consisted of small vignettes that started each chapter with "It has been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon." And it was. Every chapter was ramblings about the people of Lake Wobegon. I felt like I was watching grass grow. But occasionally there would be a funny chapter thrown in there just to see if I was awake. Th...more
I am a big fan of Keillor's Lake Wobegon stories. I first read this book when we moved to Minnesota from Utah, feeling like the title was applicable. I think I'll re-read it now that we're leaving home again - this time back to Utah, away from Minnesota. I know it will have richer meaning now that I've lived in Lake Wobegon, essentially, for almost a decade :-)
I enjoyed the amusing and stirring vinettes about the fictional town of Lake Wobegone. I listen to the Prarie Home Companion News From Lake Wobegone podcast (oh technology, linking the lost art of live radio with my interweb surfing), and I heard Keillor's slow, flat voice in my head the whole time I was reading this book. I had a little trouble telling who the narrator was at first - was it Keillor, a non-specific townsperson, someone else? - until another character mentioned the narrator by na...more
Leaving Home was a great collection of Keillor's News from Lake Wobegon. Unlike Lake Wobegon Days, where it is a more or less linear history of the town, this is a simple collection of many of his stories from A Prairie Home Companion. Personally, as a fan of the show, I loved it. It had everything in there (jokes, divorce, failures, successes, etc.), and I really think it helps if you read it in his slow, pondering style.
Reading like the monologues each of these stories originally was, this
light humorous book is a treat to read. In our hearts we know these people, and reading of this rural hideaway, I know I am not the only one who wonders why I have lived most of my life in a big city. I hope the Canada that I retire to in a few years is just like Lake Wobegon.
light humorous book is a treat to read. In our hearts we know these people, and reading of this rural hideaway, I know I am not the only one who wonders why I have lived most of my life in a big city. I hope the Canada that I retire to in a few years is just like Lake Wobegon.
Although we didn't have a TV when I was growing up, my parents did let us listen to a Prarie Home Companion. I loved listening to the Lake Woebegone stories, so I'm so glad to have them collected in a book where I can reread them and enjoy their humor and poignancy. My favorite of all time is "Truckstop."
2.5 stars because he does have a way with words. Surprisingly dark. I didn't feel anything heartwarming about these judgemental & incompetent busybodies. I came from this kind of upbringing and in my innocence I have been grateful, but lately I've been less sure that heartland values are my values.
Lauren
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
minnesotans, lovers of garrison keillor
Being a Minnesotan, I truly love Garrison Keillor. I found this book, which is basically a compilation of Prairie Home Companion stories which hit on themes of home, to be a fun little read. Some stories actually make you cry and others are much less notable. Still, a fun read.
Megan
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Megan by:
loved listening to Prarie Home Companion
I always enjoyed listening to the Prarie Home Companion and thought this book would take me back to some of those wonderful stories. Supposedly all of these stories were performed on PHC. I didn't find the stories to be funny or even remotely delightful. Mostly they were slow and boring. I finally just gave up after reading the first few stories.
Rating: 7/10. A follow-up to Keillor's 'Lake Wobegon Days' but much more serious and reflective. After seeing the movie 'Prairie Home Companion' it is hard to read this book without imagining Keillor's voice telling the story. Shortly after finishing this book, Keillor moved to Denmark; was he disillusioned with the road America was following? Certainly not much of it was anything like Lake Wobegon anymore.
I love Garrison Keillor's style; similar in feel to Mark Twain. He's a great humorist, and writes in the same slow, languishing way the Mississippi river runs - beautifully and happily. I only wish he weren't so irreverent.
Useful, but not necessary to have listened to a Lake Wobegon monologue, as the stories contained in this book are in the same vein, and could well do with being read aloud[return][return]Slow and sweet to read
Great short stories that made me fall in love with Keillor's writing. ROFL at Homecoming, it was my first and will always be my favorite (until I move to Canada, in which case it will be my favourite)
There were some good stories here, but overall I didn't feel like this book lived up to all the hype that Keillor gets. I am still trying to decide whether to read Lake Wobegon Days or not.
I truly related to these stories. I grew up in a rural town in Colorado and so many of these stories where so close to home. They made me laugh, smile, and cry.
I've always liked Prairie Home Companion, so I'm not surprised that I like the book. Taken me a while to have time to even pick up a book!
So far, I am just happy to have found Keillor. This is the first of his books I have read but certainly not the last. What a gem!
Amazing creative writer. Very much enjoyed his stories and the characters within them. How does he do this practically every week?
Jeannie
added it
Love Garrison Keillor! I swear I grew up with these people! How many people think Lake Wobegon is Albany?!
Garrison Keillor has the most lovely sleep-inducing voice, but jesus h christ are his books underwhelming.
If you have a dry sense of humor and are in the mood for some short stories, this book is for you!
Recap of Garrison Keillor's stories from the "Prairie Home Companion" of the 1980s. Radio is better than print.
Keillor is a great storyteller whose characters come alive with each new tale.
A great journey, worth the time and his distinct voice is a gift.
This was a nice book that I kept by my bed. It was easy to pick up, read a couple of chapters, and fall asleep. I don't mean that it was boring and "put me to sleep." What I mean is that it was light, interesting, funny, and didn't require a lot of "thinking" when you're wanting to shut your brain activity down for the night and sleep peacefully.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keillor's Portrayal of Home | 1 | 7 | Feb 24, 2010 05:04pm |
Readers Also Enjoyed
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.
More about Garrison Keillor...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Thank you, dear God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.”
—
175 people liked it
“Nothing you do for children is ever wasted.”
—
163 people liked it
More quotes…
