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Lake Wobegon #5
Lake Wobegon Summer, 1956
A hilarious coming-of-age novel, Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 serves up the world according to 14-year-old Gary, an endearing geek, a self-described 'tree-toad', and a writer in the making whose best friend is his Underwood typewriter. Always with humour, and often with great sympathy, charm and honesty, the author tells us a story that both satirises and celebrates the traumas and the passions of adolescence. Keillor takes us back to a newly-minted America. With its post-war optimism and Cold War suspicions of outsiders, the 1950s are evoked in unforgettable Wobegon fashion.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
58 people are currently reading
780 people want to read
About the author
Garrison Keillor
281 books845 followersGary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion (called Garrison Keillor's Radio Show in some international syndication), which he hosted from 1974 to 2016. Keillor created the fictional Minnesota town Lake Wobegon, the setting of many of his books, including Lake Wobegon Days and Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories. Other creations include Guy Noir, a detective voiced by Keillor who appeared in A Prairie Home Companion comic skits. Keillor is also the creator of the five-minute daily radio/podcast program The Writer's Almanac, which pairs poems of his choice with a script about important literary, historical, and scientific events that coincided with that date in history.
In November 2017, Minnesota Public Radio cut all business ties with Keillor after an allegation of inappropriate behavior with a freelance writer for A Prairie Home Companion. On April 13, 2018, MPR and Keillor announced a settlement that allows archives of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac to be publicly available again, and soon thereafter, Keillor began publishing new episodes of The Writer's Almanac on his website. He also continues to tour a stage version of A Prairie Home Companion, although these shows are not broadcast by MPR or American Public Media.
In November 2017, Minnesota Public Radio cut all business ties with Keillor after an allegation of inappropriate behavior with a freelance writer for A Prairie Home Companion. On April 13, 2018, MPR and Keillor announced a settlement that allows archives of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac to be publicly available again, and soon thereafter, Keillor began publishing new episodes of The Writer's Almanac on his website. He also continues to tour a stage version of A Prairie Home Companion, although these shows are not broadcast by MPR or American Public Media.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 206 reviews
June 3, 2010
I first discovered Garrison Keillor while milking cows in Minnesota in 1972. He had a morning radio show and without fail played "Help, Help Me Rhonda" every single day his show was on. It became a kind of joke. But it was a fun show to help pass the time while having manure swished in my face. Ever since, I've been a devotee of the Lake Wobegon section of his current radio show (can't stand most of the music, so now I get just the Wobegon section as a podcast.) They are a delight, as is this quasi-autobiographical set of memories recounted by Gary who is obsessed with the illicit magazine, High School Orgies (you know the one with the two teachers, unable to control their mutual lust, doing it in the library.) And the time when the principal was speaking to the class and let one rip that had to be absolutely the most vile and smelly fart ever, causing our Gary to giggle, whereupon he was asked what was so funny, and he had the temerity to tell them it was because of the fart. The teacher is livid and then there is the conversation with Mother. (One should always have a clean backup joke for just such occasions.)
Gary learned he had a talent for writing and discovered he could fend off the local bullies, (who had a cumulative IQ of about 12) by writing salacious poetry, or puns on the order of "Anne of Green Buggers," or "Buggers in the Willows," -- you get the idea.
I loved the scenes with The Sister haranguing his father to get Gary to dry the dishes when, as everyone knows, water evaporates, so why dry them, is Gary's strategy. Meanwhile, Gary is reading High School Orgies on the swing on the front porch, having it hidden in the P volume of the encyclopedia, a gift from a relative who gave a different volume from a set of the encyclopedia to each relative for Christmas. (This was a tactic my mother used. For Christmas one year, she game me volume one of Montaigne's essays -- in French -- and volume two to my brother. In high school Montaigne was not high on my reading list, but you get the idea.)
The book is an affectionate, mocking look at a conservative small town in the Midwest during the fifties. It did bring back some memories. (I hid my copy of Fanny Hill under a loose floorboard in the third floor bathroom.) It's not Keillor's best effort, but entertaining nevertheless.
Note: If you are a sanctimonious prick you will probably not enjoy this book. It has its share of scatological and masturbatory references. There is no plot. Get over it.
Gary learned he had a talent for writing and discovered he could fend off the local bullies, (who had a cumulative IQ of about 12) by writing salacious poetry, or puns on the order of "Anne of Green Buggers," or "Buggers in the Willows," -- you get the idea.
I loved the scenes with The Sister haranguing his father to get Gary to dry the dishes when, as everyone knows, water evaporates, so why dry them, is Gary's strategy. Meanwhile, Gary is reading High School Orgies on the swing on the front porch, having it hidden in the P volume of the encyclopedia, a gift from a relative who gave a different volume from a set of the encyclopedia to each relative for Christmas. (This was a tactic my mother used. For Christmas one year, she game me volume one of Montaigne's essays -- in French -- and volume two to my brother. In high school Montaigne was not high on my reading list, but you get the idea.)
The book is an affectionate, mocking look at a conservative small town in the Midwest during the fifties. It did bring back some memories. (I hid my copy of Fanny Hill under a loose floorboard in the third floor bathroom.) It's not Keillor's best effort, but entertaining nevertheless.
Note: If you are a sanctimonious prick you will probably not enjoy this book. It has its share of scatological and masturbatory references. There is no plot. Get over it.
November 28, 2014
3.5, really. While reading this novel, I could not help but snicker at many of the representations of characters populating this story. Too many of them were true...perhaps that is the genius of this comedic journey of storytelling. Then again, perhaps the comedy of this tale should be looked upon in a different light, a light filtered through malaise. Ultimately, it does not matter if one reads this story through either perspective. What matters is the notion that we all are searching for our path through this kaleidoscope we call life. Sometimes the path is easy; sometimes the path is rough. 1956. 1976. 1996. 2016. Each generation thinks they had it worse. Unfortunately, no one seems to realize that we are all spinning on the same blue dot, recycling the good and bad that have come before us.
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RECOMMENDED
June 17, 2022
The world is a tough place in 2022 and I needed to revisit Lake Wobegon. I selected this book as my passport back to simpler times. As described on the book jacket this is a coming of age tale written in the first person by Gary, a 14 year old boy with lots on his mind (mostly sex). At times laugh out loud funny, Mr. Keillor does a splendid job illuminating the workings of Gary's mind. I found the first half of the book to be stronger than the second. I didn't enjoy spending so much time at the ballpark or with the Doo Dads but overall a great story of a more innocent time featuring the young writer we know will grow up to become Garrison Keillor.
lookedinto-decidedagainst
March 6, 2014http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Although the year in this title is, well, a fantastic vintage, my foray into Wobegone Boy put me off Keillor. I don't 'get' Keillor, and I know that may be my loss.
Although the year in this title is, well, a fantastic vintage, my foray into Wobegone Boy put me off Keillor. I don't 'get' Keillor, and I know that may be my loss.
April 16, 2025
I know Mr Keillor turned out to be a perverted old man but this book is hilarious! I do love his writing and have a bit of an understanding in what is going on in a young boys head
February 18, 2025
Nice to see Keillor back in his comfort zone after the big misfire that was his previous effort Me, about Jesse Ventura's governorship. We are on familiar ground with another Lake Wobegone story, featuring a teenage Keillor stand-in growing up in his rural Minnesota town, contending with his religious parents, obsessed with a pornographic magazine, and generally doing the slow, laborious work of transitioning from childhood to whatever comes next.
In spite of Keillor's personal misdeeds, these books still speak pretty strongly to someone that grew up in a similar environment (across the border over in South Dakota). For those familiar with Keillor's voice only through the radio show, I would caution that these books are in the same world but he is freed in the book form to pursue darker modes of thought than what you can say over the air.
There are a few plotlines in this one but no overarching, driving story. These stories have the feel of the long, unstructured summer days during which they occur. Maybe you'll watch some baseball, maybe you'll hear some music, maybe you'll bump into your cousin on whom you have a crush. Most definitely you will argue with your parents or sister and daydream about sex.
Even before his (deserving) cancellation, Keillor wasn't for everybody and that's as true as ever with this one. Some will find it boring; some will find it too raunchy. I guess at this late date most of us have had enough exposure to his style of humor to know whether it has resonance for us or not...writing the review is hardly necessary. For me though these stories call back to a time when the world was still a great unknowable mass just beyond the horizon, full of possibility. The town I grew up in simultaneously a provincial black hole while also being a comfort and source of security. If that's you too, then Keillor may speak to you as well.
In spite of Keillor's personal misdeeds, these books still speak pretty strongly to someone that grew up in a similar environment (across the border over in South Dakota). For those familiar with Keillor's voice only through the radio show, I would caution that these books are in the same world but he is freed in the book form to pursue darker modes of thought than what you can say over the air.
There are a few plotlines in this one but no overarching, driving story. These stories have the feel of the long, unstructured summer days during which they occur. Maybe you'll watch some baseball, maybe you'll hear some music, maybe you'll bump into your cousin on whom you have a crush. Most definitely you will argue with your parents or sister and daydream about sex.
Even before his (deserving) cancellation, Keillor wasn't for everybody and that's as true as ever with this one. Some will find it boring; some will find it too raunchy. I guess at this late date most of us have had enough exposure to his style of humor to know whether it has resonance for us or not...writing the review is hardly necessary. For me though these stories call back to a time when the world was still a great unknowable mass just beyond the horizon, full of possibility. The town I grew up in simultaneously a provincial black hole while also being a comfort and source of security. If that's you too, then Keillor may speak to you as well.
August 9, 2013
I found this book on the clearance rack for a dollar so most important of all, don't over pay for it. There are plenty of copies to go around.
On the positive side, this book was brashly honest. Keillor talks very frankly about the feelings of an adolescent young man and having been an adolescent young man... well, let's just say that he's being very honest. The author's dry wit for which he's famous is evident as he takes us on these boyhood exploits and unveils his early formative days.
On the negative side, and this may seem prudish and contradictory, it was at times almost too honest. To put it bluntly, a lot of what boys think about at that age is sex. And when they're done thinking about that they think about sex some more. And in between long protracted periods of thinking about sex, they think about how they're going to get some sex. While this is all very truthful and revealing, it just isn't the image I had of Mr. Keillor. Part of his appeal is his homespun squeaky cleanness and this... well, it just wasn't clean. It wasn't lude either, but it just wasn't quite what one expects.
In summary, I'm glad I read it but it has changed my image of the author forever. This is not a diminishment of his person or character, just a rather humanizing change. On the whole that's probably a good thing but it isn't what I would have predicted when I picked up the book that's a certainty.
On the positive side, this book was brashly honest. Keillor talks very frankly about the feelings of an adolescent young man and having been an adolescent young man... well, let's just say that he's being very honest. The author's dry wit for which he's famous is evident as he takes us on these boyhood exploits and unveils his early formative days.
On the negative side, and this may seem prudish and contradictory, it was at times almost too honest. To put it bluntly, a lot of what boys think about at that age is sex. And when they're done thinking about that they think about sex some more. And in between long protracted periods of thinking about sex, they think about how they're going to get some sex. While this is all very truthful and revealing, it just isn't the image I had of Mr. Keillor. Part of his appeal is his homespun squeaky cleanness and this... well, it just wasn't clean. It wasn't lude either, but it just wasn't quite what one expects.
In summary, I'm glad I read it but it has changed my image of the author forever. This is not a diminishment of his person or character, just a rather humanizing change. On the whole that's probably a good thing but it isn't what I would have predicted when I picked up the book that's a certainty.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2013
As near life long resident of small norther towns, everything Garrison Keillor writes is basically in my wheelhouse. So now comes a Keillor novel about a young teenage boy growing up in one of those towns and there was no chance I wasn't going to like this book. That said I ended up liking it for rather unexpected reasons.
It's amazing how familiar a coming of age story set in 1956 can be today. So much of growing up is about learning how to turn childhood relationships into adult relationships, and that's the feeling Keillor is able to make work so well. There is a real human side to every outlandish Lake Wobegon resident. That Keillor can lampoon them for ten pages but still make you care about them for the next ten... well it just makes me smile.
It's amazing how familiar a coming of age story set in 1956 can be today. So much of growing up is about learning how to turn childhood relationships into adult relationships, and that's the feeling Keillor is able to make work so well. There is a real human side to every outlandish Lake Wobegon resident. That Keillor can lampoon them for ten pages but still make you care about them for the next ten... well it just makes me smile.
February 9, 2013
Am beginning to see the benefits of an e-reader. Bought this book in a second-hand shop because I'd read all the books I had room to carry with me on holiday. Not much for choice, I'm afraid. This was not to my taste. I have no interest in baseball whatsoever, and the smutty bits about a boy's adolescence also are of no appeal to me. Not my book day.
December 27, 2017
I started reading this about the time that news came out about Garrison Keillor's sexual harassment. That caused me to look at the book in a different way than I might have earlier. The book is about young Gary in Lake Wobegon, his family, relatives and schoolmates. I almost stopped reading it after just a few chapters as I tired of hearing about Gary's adolescent thinking especially aided by certain print materials. Finally, Keillor got a bit beyond that and the story gradually evolved making it more interesting.
July 6, 2023
5+ stars for the writing. 3 stars for the content. You'll just have to skip over sections of this book which are a little too graphic for my liking. A coming of age memoir of the author finding his place and his sexuality. Everything else in the book is brilliant, really brilliant.
August 10, 2024
I think that I've read nearly all of GK's books and really enjoyed them for the humor and stories. This was my least favorite.
January 3, 2016
Did not finish. I picked this as a Minnesota author (male) for the bookclub. I haven't read any Garrison Keillor, so was looking forward to this. Nobody liked it, and most of us did not finish it. Told from the point of view of a 14-year-old boy, it was like being back in junior high. If you like sex and fart jokes, great. Otherwise, I'd skip this book. I got the impression that it might be a bit autobiographical (sadly). The bookclub (all women) had the reaction "Is this REALLY all guys think about?" I hate to be sexist, but I remember in grad school being the only woman in a medieval history class, and yes, it got pretty raunchy sometimes, and then they would all smirk and apologize (yeah right...) So maybe guys would like this book - the women in the bookclub certainly didn't care for it.
From Publishers Weekly
With a four-year hiatus since Wobegon Boy, legions of Keillor faithful will likely hold candlelight vigils in front of their favorite booksellers awaiting the arrival of this long overdue episode in the ongoing checkered history of the fictional Minnesota hamlet. Vacillating between poignant, endearing, outrageous and mocking, this thoroughly engaging, frequently hilarious bildungsroman is narrated by the libidinous, iconoclastic 14-year-old wannabe writer Gary. Recounting the trials and tribulations of coming of age under the smothering influence of the Sanctified Brethren, a religious sect preaching unrelenting hellfire and damnation during the summer of 1956 in the tiny backwater of Lake Wobegon, the somewhat nerdy hero has a sexual fixation on his slightly older cousin Kate, abhors his geeky goody-two-shoes older sister, is obsessed with pornographic sexual fantasies engendered from reading a purloined copy of the verboten magazine High School Orgies, and is preoccupied by such intellectual pursuits as classifying variations of the 10 known categories of flatulence. Given an Underwood typewriter as a bribe from his uncle to tattletale on Kate's romance with a ne'er-do-well local baseball hero, Gary turns to writing pornographic stories about his imagined adventures with Kate before he is serendipitously handed the job of substitute sportswriter for the local paper. Game after game, he is forced to observe Kate's budding romance, until the affair predictably culminates in the age-old biological consequence and the family spins into crisis mode while our hero suffers a broken heart. Although the denouement is more fizzle than bang, avid Keillorites will be left shouting "more."
From Publishers Weekly
With a four-year hiatus since Wobegon Boy, legions of Keillor faithful will likely hold candlelight vigils in front of their favorite booksellers awaiting the arrival of this long overdue episode in the ongoing checkered history of the fictional Minnesota hamlet. Vacillating between poignant, endearing, outrageous and mocking, this thoroughly engaging, frequently hilarious bildungsroman is narrated by the libidinous, iconoclastic 14-year-old wannabe writer Gary. Recounting the trials and tribulations of coming of age under the smothering influence of the Sanctified Brethren, a religious sect preaching unrelenting hellfire and damnation during the summer of 1956 in the tiny backwater of Lake Wobegon, the somewhat nerdy hero has a sexual fixation on his slightly older cousin Kate, abhors his geeky goody-two-shoes older sister, is obsessed with pornographic sexual fantasies engendered from reading a purloined copy of the verboten magazine High School Orgies, and is preoccupied by such intellectual pursuits as classifying variations of the 10 known categories of flatulence. Given an Underwood typewriter as a bribe from his uncle to tattletale on Kate's romance with a ne'er-do-well local baseball hero, Gary turns to writing pornographic stories about his imagined adventures with Kate before he is serendipitously handed the job of substitute sportswriter for the local paper. Game after game, he is forced to observe Kate's budding romance, until the affair predictably culminates in the age-old biological consequence and the family spins into crisis mode while our hero suffers a broken heart. Although the denouement is more fizzle than bang, avid Keillorites will be left shouting "more."
July 20, 2020
Garrison Keillor was in his 60's and old enough to be called a dirty perverted old man when he wrote "Lake Wobegon Summer 1956." This book is pedophilia porn, disguised as a actual novel, and as other reviews have said it is "autobiographical to some degree" which makes it a very disturbing look into Mr Keillor's mind. In between childish fights with his sister, examples of all the teachers he did not agree with and arrogance about his young writing skills he offers up page after page of trash from a porn magazine he is reading as a young boy. In each porn section there is either a school age boy having sex with the librarian or women teacher- or a school age girl and an old man public school teacher. He goes into great graphic detail. Top that off with chapters of very monotonous sports statistics and an equally horrid rendition of his sexual relationship with a cousin. I am surprised at the rave reviews he received, should we not, in these modern times be more aware and outraged at the pedaling of pedophilia? Where is the moral outrage? Where is the plot? He offers up these experiences as entertainment and glorifies women and pubescent girls as sex objects to fulfill his fantasy. What women is okay with this entertainment? I include tidbits excerpts from page 164 in which a drama teacher who he has described as a gray haired old man is convincing the little girl in his class that she has to do sexual favors to get the part in the play. Tidbits because It will make me literally sick to write out the whole paragraph "Julie offered no resistance as Mr Peters unbuttoned her blouse. His fingers slipped into her panties she was as hot as a furnace." pg 168: "Kissing him with a passion seldom found in one so young. - she was riding him for all she was worth." Garrison Keillor is talking about a child here- and the fact that he has 5 ratings for this book is shocking.
May 29, 2008
I was going at a pretty good pace, reading books I had been putting off reading for too long and getting through them one per week or so. Until this book came along. I think it took me three months, maybe longer, to finally finish this book. It's not that it's a bad book, but I think I was just a little misinformed.
There's two things that I like that I thought I'd find in this book - fifties nostalgia and a nice coming of age story. I don't really think Lake Wobegon contains either of these. I never even really felt like it was set in the fifties - the atmosphere just wasn't there - and there wasn't much "nice" about this book. The main character refers to himself as a "tree toad" because he's so hideous and the book is brimming with sexual humor. Never before have I seen a narrator refer to his "pecker" as much as I did here. And did I mention that the boy frequently dreams about having sexual encounters with his cousin?
It's just an odd book. Little to nothing happens in it, so if you like reading about weirdo kids who sit on their porch reading pornography and watering the lawn all day, then you'll probably love this. Not a painful read, but certainly nothing that had me turning the pages at an alarming rate.
There's two things that I like that I thought I'd find in this book - fifties nostalgia and a nice coming of age story. I don't really think Lake Wobegon contains either of these. I never even really felt like it was set in the fifties - the atmosphere just wasn't there - and there wasn't much "nice" about this book. The main character refers to himself as a "tree toad" because he's so hideous and the book is brimming with sexual humor. Never before have I seen a narrator refer to his "pecker" as much as I did here. And did I mention that the boy frequently dreams about having sexual encounters with his cousin?
It's just an odd book. Little to nothing happens in it, so if you like reading about weirdo kids who sit on their porch reading pornography and watering the lawn all day, then you'll probably love this. Not a painful read, but certainly nothing that had me turning the pages at an alarming rate.
February 29, 2016
Although I am an avid fan of Garrison Keillor's writing and radio program, I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as many of his earlier novels due to all the emphasis on sex which was vulgar and crude at times. I got so tired of reading about Gary's obsession with his penis, the stories he wrote about sex, and the articles shared from the magazine High School Orgies which were offensive to me. Fortunately, there was enough of Keillor's famous wit and humor mixed in between the crude parts ot make the book enjoyable in places. So many times when he quoted his father's remarks, I could vividly remember hearing those same comments from people in my life and it made me laugh. His descriptions of people and their flaws are delightful. Too bad he had to include so much crude and vulgar material in this novel.
July 28, 2012
This story is hilarious. The tone is mischievously comedic. The main character is honest and I found myself rooting for him to the end of the book. It puts you in the setting of the early days and has you wishing that you could be there. The writing was refreshing with the way Keillor describes things. This was entertaining from beginning to end.
March 5, 2025
Garrison Keillor is an excellent storyteller and writer. He knows how to compellingly paint a scene and depict a person or a community with all their foibles and qualities.
Sadly, he also has an anti-Christian perspective. He makes you feel so good about rejecting basic truths. He weaves in some deep truth with lots of lies.
Here's what he gets right. He vividly describes temptations to sin. Pious Christians can learn something from this, as we tend to avoid admitting the reality of it. And he shows how people can respond to sinners graciously. Pious Christians often want to condemn and reject scandalous sin, getting as far away from it as possible, when we need to find our way to communal forgiveness and acceptance of outsiders and sinners, as they take a better and more godly path.
Here's what he gets wrong. His conclusion is that sin is normal and we shouldn't be so revulsed by it. Shame and a guilty conscience is always a bad thing. The church and its leadership are misguided in how to handle sin. The solution to sin isn't the cross of Jesus, but people who accept and love you for who you are.
Keillor gets all this across without ever being preachy, just telling a compelling story that is deeply true to life. This makes it all the more insidious. He appeals to common experience to argue for the truth of his assertions. A cranky, fundamentalist father. A sexual temptation. A first job that launches you into the world. An out of wedlock pregnancy leading to a marriage. "This is my life, my family," thinks the reader. But in the end, his solution is not God's grace in Jesus, but other people who won't condemn you.
I cried at some points, the story was so good. I read a lot out loud to my wife and kids. But I had to edit out the R-rated sentences. (Don't give this book to your kids. Ironically, one of my kids gave it to me for Christmas, without having read it all!) Keillor knows what it is to be human, and he's been influenced by Christianity, but he misses the main point of life: to pursue righteousness according to God's Word. He understands grace on a horizontal level - person to person and within a community. But he doesn't seem to think God has any grace or relevance for us in this life.
5 stars for writing. 1 star for message.
Sadly, he also has an anti-Christian perspective. He makes you feel so good about rejecting basic truths. He weaves in some deep truth with lots of lies.
Here's what he gets right. He vividly describes temptations to sin. Pious Christians can learn something from this, as we tend to avoid admitting the reality of it. And he shows how people can respond to sinners graciously. Pious Christians often want to condemn and reject scandalous sin, getting as far away from it as possible, when we need to find our way to communal forgiveness and acceptance of outsiders and sinners, as they take a better and more godly path.
Here's what he gets wrong. His conclusion is that sin is normal and we shouldn't be so revulsed by it. Shame and a guilty conscience is always a bad thing. The church and its leadership are misguided in how to handle sin. The solution to sin isn't the cross of Jesus, but people who accept and love you for who you are.
Keillor gets all this across without ever being preachy, just telling a compelling story that is deeply true to life. This makes it all the more insidious. He appeals to common experience to argue for the truth of his assertions. A cranky, fundamentalist father. A sexual temptation. A first job that launches you into the world. An out of wedlock pregnancy leading to a marriage. "This is my life, my family," thinks the reader. But in the end, his solution is not God's grace in Jesus, but other people who won't condemn you.
I cried at some points, the story was so good. I read a lot out loud to my wife and kids. But I had to edit out the R-rated sentences. (Don't give this book to your kids. Ironically, one of my kids gave it to me for Christmas, without having read it all!) Keillor knows what it is to be human, and he's been influenced by Christianity, but he misses the main point of life: to pursue righteousness according to God's Word. He understands grace on a horizontal level - person to person and within a community. But he doesn't seem to think God has any grace or relevance for us in this life.
5 stars for writing. 1 star for message.
February 25, 2024
As Grandpa and Jesus look down from heaven with varying levels of disapproval--Jesus is the more tolerant of the two--14-year-old Gary, aka The Toad, is enjoying what he hasn't yet realized is the final summer of his childhood: listening to the Trojan Seed Company Troubadour and Big Daddy Fats on the radio (especially a local group, the Doo-Dads); enjoying a wide range of reading interests, from THE NEW YORKER to HIGH SCHOOL ORGIES; writing fiction on the manual typewriter provided by his Uncle Sugar, and later covering the Whippets, the local baseball team as a temporary substitute sports reporter; fighting with his sister--nameless--and resenting the older brother--also nameless; trying to understand his father, who hides an emotional nature behind constant negativity; celebrating the 4th of July at the American Legion picnic; visiting the farm to see his grandmother and the colorful Aunt Eva; fantasizing about his rebellious and outspoken cousin Kate; winning over the bullying Magnedanz brothers with booger jokes; and puzzling over the mysteries and contradictions of Midwestern Lutheranism. Other than his own relatives, a key family in young Gary's world is the Guppys, especially their three sons: Ricky, who runs away with his underage girlfriend Dede, becoming a poor man's version of Bonnie and Clyde; Jim Dandy, the bass singer of the Doo-Dads and announcer for the Whippets; and Roger, their ace pitcher. The last two brothers look forward to stellar careers in music and sports; it's just a matter of time. But idyllic Lake Wobegone has a darker side. Aunt Eva no longer hypnotizes chickens but has started railing against certain people--most likely Gary's parents--who are too good to visit her and use the outdoor biffy; maybe she should just go upstairs and drink a glass of rat poison. The Doo-Dads are not well received at the 4th of July picnic; are they really headed for stardom? And Kate becomes pregnant by Roger, necessitating a hasty marriage attended by the chastened Ricky, now in the custody of a US marshall. As Gary experiences his "dazzling writerly moment," the cost is a clearer and darker view of the world around him.
December 4, 2025
Reading Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 feels a little like opening a time capsule only to discover that the past was not, in fact, innocent—just better at keeping secrets. I found this book funny, charming, and at times almost pornographic, which is precisely what I expect (and frankly, want) from a coming-of-age story. Desire, confusion, shame, and wonder all mingle together in the heat of a Minnesota summer, creating that unmistakable sense that everything is happening for the first time and will never happen quite the same way again.
The family at the center of the story is a perfectly imperfect constellation of oddballs. There’s the overly religious sister, a one-girl crusade against sin. The disengaged father, who floats through the household like a well-meaning ghost. And the mother—oh, the mother—devouring murder stories in the newspaper with the zeal of someone who was just born about sixty years too early for true-crime podcasts. (Apparently the ladies have always loved true crime; it’s practically genetic.)
But the sun of this chaotic solar system is cousin Kate. Beloved, wild, a little dangerous in the way freedom always is. She embodies that bittersweet truth of adolescence: some people enter your life like comets—brilliant, reckless, unforgettable—and they pull your orbit just enough that you’re never quite the same.
If you’re looking for a light read, here it is. A nostalgic, sly, gently scandalous romp through a summer that feels both specific and universal. Enjoy.
The family at the center of the story is a perfectly imperfect constellation of oddballs. There’s the overly religious sister, a one-girl crusade against sin. The disengaged father, who floats through the household like a well-meaning ghost. And the mother—oh, the mother—devouring murder stories in the newspaper with the zeal of someone who was just born about sixty years too early for true-crime podcasts. (Apparently the ladies have always loved true crime; it’s practically genetic.)
But the sun of this chaotic solar system is cousin Kate. Beloved, wild, a little dangerous in the way freedom always is. She embodies that bittersweet truth of adolescence: some people enter your life like comets—brilliant, reckless, unforgettable—and they pull your orbit just enough that you’re never quite the same.
If you’re looking for a light read, here it is. A nostalgic, sly, gently scandalous romp through a summer that feels both specific and universal. Enjoy.
April 16, 2019
What a beautifully written book this is. So perfectly captures the claustrophobic atmosphere, fears, and growing pains of a teenager in 1950s midwest America.
Gary, our protagonist, is clearly too big for Lake Wobegon. At 14 he is already verging on being an author and exploring concepts too big for his restrictive father and school. The book charts his growing realisation that he can and will need to escape.
There is a clever comparison thread with another teenager who escapes town with his girlfriend, and whose story is followed through news reports while on the run. The thread of this story and that of Gary's cousin Kate neatly parallels Gary's own - the longing for more, the need to leave, and the consideration - is it possible to escape Lake Wobegon at all, and if so how?
There are no wasted sentences in this book. The plot is taut, the prose precise and yet wonderfully descriptive. Characters are beautifully drawn, from the charismatic Uncle Sugar, to the repulsive sister. The sultry summer atmosphere is explored through set-pieces - a wonderful passage where Gary and his mother are the last two awake, late on a hot night, and personal experiences are shared. Sitting in the press box with a singer in a band watching baseball. Driving around with cousin Kate.
This is a classic coming of age book, so clearly described that reading it is to understand the characters and the town and believe you could step straight into that fantasy summer.
Gary, our protagonist, is clearly too big for Lake Wobegon. At 14 he is already verging on being an author and exploring concepts too big for his restrictive father and school. The book charts his growing realisation that he can and will need to escape.
There is a clever comparison thread with another teenager who escapes town with his girlfriend, and whose story is followed through news reports while on the run. The thread of this story and that of Gary's cousin Kate neatly parallels Gary's own - the longing for more, the need to leave, and the consideration - is it possible to escape Lake Wobegon at all, and if so how?
There are no wasted sentences in this book. The plot is taut, the prose precise and yet wonderfully descriptive. Characters are beautifully drawn, from the charismatic Uncle Sugar, to the repulsive sister. The sultry summer atmosphere is explored through set-pieces - a wonderful passage where Gary and his mother are the last two awake, late on a hot night, and personal experiences are shared. Sitting in the press box with a singer in a band watching baseball. Driving around with cousin Kate.
This is a classic coming of age book, so clearly described that reading it is to understand the characters and the town and believe you could step straight into that fantasy summer.
December 23, 2024
I've been aware of Garrison Keillor's homespun quirky characters, odd charm, and unique capture of midwestern Americana since hearing A Prairie Home Companion every odd night or so while cooking dinner with my mom growing up. Still, I was by no means a die hard fan going into this fun romp of a novel; simply curious to see what he had to say on the written page after finding it at a used bookstore. An utterly boyish embracement of the juvenile emerges, complete with the midwestern 50's era small town life and puritanicals. Although there is a sense of the traditional coming of age sort of novel, most of the actual plot points don't center around Gary himself, as he simply views things from the sidelines and grows into his own as a budding writer. Seeing the first-person writing in the book clearly develop into a more confident and Keillor-esque form over time was his own coming of age, while other characters are the ones developing the drama and plot points. It's crass, and some would even say childish throughout, but that's just the sort of thing Garrison was able to form into a style all his own.
December 30, 2024
Entertaining? Yeah a bit. The 50s may truly be a bit too antiquated for me and there's only so many times you can include snippets of stories from a High School Orgies magazine before I start to go 🤨. However the big takeaway I got (and from what I can tell, the main strength of Keillor's writing and storytelling) is the sinister nature of small-town life. It's a game of secrets where so little happens that everyone bides their time by finding out about everyone else, building webs to trap their neighbors, colleagues, and even themselves. And if you want to escape and better understand the world beyond the town borders, you have to play your cards so so so carefully, otherwise it sucks you back in and won't let go.
With that said, I highly respect Keillor's craft in bringing out these invisible forces of country living, but the lack of reverence towards these forces often put me on edge throughout my time with the book in a way that's hard to explain. Nostalgia is a dangerous weapon in the hands of a trained wielder.
With that said, I highly respect Keillor's craft in bringing out these invisible forces of country living, but the lack of reverence towards these forces often put me on edge throughout my time with the book in a way that's hard to explain. Nostalgia is a dangerous weapon in the hands of a trained wielder.
February 19, 2021
My eighth book by Garrison Keillor. 'WLT: A Radio Romance' is still my favorite.
Difficult for me not to award 'LW Summer 1956' all five stars - the story is of my upbringing - though I was but of the plain Lutherans - nothing so exotic as the Sanctified Brethren - the laughs are many though the chortles barely cover the deeper sympathies that lie beneath - how well I recall most everything Gary describes - I was a withdrawn awkward lump who hid away on the farm during my high school summers of 1961- 1964. Recall overhearing that godawful question, "has he noticed girls?" How in god's name could a young lad of those painful years 14-17 not notice girls. The way some of them are made, how could it be otherwise? No, they were noticed, and obsessed over. It was more a question of how they noticed the forlorn toad in the corner. Or so I thought. Later I discovered beer - then it all really went to Hell. This is pretty much the innocent part of the story.
Difficult for me not to award 'LW Summer 1956' all five stars - the story is of my upbringing - though I was but of the plain Lutherans - nothing so exotic as the Sanctified Brethren - the laughs are many though the chortles barely cover the deeper sympathies that lie beneath - how well I recall most everything Gary describes - I was a withdrawn awkward lump who hid away on the farm during my high school summers of 1961- 1964. Recall overhearing that godawful question, "has he noticed girls?" How in god's name could a young lad of those painful years 14-17 not notice girls. The way some of them are made, how could it be otherwise? No, they were noticed, and obsessed over. It was more a question of how they noticed the forlorn toad in the corner. Or so I thought. Later I discovered beer - then it all really went to Hell. This is pretty much the innocent part of the story.
October 29, 2021
A novel from Garrison Keillor is different than a radio story about Lake Obregon.
The characters of Lake Wobegon drive the storyline and the names of places and people are funny in their own way. But in reading, we don’t hear Keillor’s voice and timing and the laughter from the audience. Also, the radio program gave us a small slice of Wobegon each week on their. In the book form, the story line gets slow quickly.
The written delivery provides some humor but we don’t hear the laughter of the audience of the radio.
Readers who miss the Keillor voice (and what a voice) will like the book because it takes us back to the Saturday nights we listen (and the talk about the radio story on Monday morning).
The two forms of delivery of his works shows the difference between with the ear and the eye.
The characters of Lake Wobegon drive the storyline and the names of places and people are funny in their own way. But in reading, we don’t hear Keillor’s voice and timing and the laughter from the audience. Also, the radio program gave us a small slice of Wobegon each week on their. In the book form, the story line gets slow quickly.
The written delivery provides some humor but we don’t hear the laughter of the audience of the radio.
Readers who miss the Keillor voice (and what a voice) will like the book because it takes us back to the Saturday nights we listen (and the talk about the radio story on Monday morning).
The two forms of delivery of his works shows the difference between with the ear and the eye.
September 24, 2021
Obsessive Compulsive
Actually, I have never met anyone who had such a compulsive interest in body functions, out loud at least, as the youth does in this title.
And, for a Sanctified Brethren, the narrator, at least on a fictional basis, claimed to be a prolific producer of juvenile prose…with a typewriter. What with goofy poetry and stories and anecdotes of goofy family members and the populace in general, who could ask for anything more? But, then, who does not have goofy family members or acquaintances?
Amazon uses the term bildungsroman, meaning novel of coming of age, a term I had not come across since freshman literature.
So, there you go- fiction with a definite audience.
But, why am I not laughing?
Actually, I have never met anyone who had such a compulsive interest in body functions, out loud at least, as the youth does in this title.
And, for a Sanctified Brethren, the narrator, at least on a fictional basis, claimed to be a prolific producer of juvenile prose…with a typewriter. What with goofy poetry and stories and anecdotes of goofy family members and the populace in general, who could ask for anything more? But, then, who does not have goofy family members or acquaintances?
Amazon uses the term bildungsroman, meaning novel of coming of age, a term I had not come across since freshman literature.
So, there you go- fiction with a definite audience.
But, why am I not laughing?
September 10, 2020
I listened to this via audiobook. So entertaining! I really enjoy Keillor's humor. He imbues his stories of midwestern life with a lovely poignancy. I read some of the negative reviews of this book and yes, it is not appropriate to listen to with children in the car because 'Gary', our narrator, is a teenage boy who thinks and reads a lot about sex. (Newsflash: that isn't unusual for a teenage boy). If that is offensive to you then this is not your book; I did not find it offensive in the least--just really funny.
May 19, 2021
This is a story told from the perspective of 14-year-old Garrison Keillor about the events in his family and his life during the lead up to and the summer of 1956. This author is excellent at grabbing you from page one and making you feel part of the story. The editing was good and loved his family characters and his descriptions. Really enjoyed the writing he mixed in and the comments of his English teacher. This was a funny, amazing book and I so enjoyed it. May now need to read more by him. Highly recommend this book.
July 28, 2019
This coming of age novel, set in the familiar environment of Lake Wobegon, where things haven't really changed too much from 1956 to the recent years of Lake Wobegon News on 'Prairie Home Companion' does contain passages you would never hear on radio. However they ring true of an awkward 14 year old boy brought up in such a repressive and repressed environment. Is this pure imagination or embroidered biography.
November 26, 2019
That's it, I am done! I am going to cut my losses as there is no point in going on.
I finished reading page 161 before I decided to cheat and read up on some reviews. The 1-2 star reviews confirm what I have been thinking all along: this story is going no where. The 4-5 star reviews baffle me, just like this book!!!! I feel no attachment to the characters, I certainly do not feel nostalgia for the 50's. Now it is confirmed there is no gem waiting for me in pages 163-292, I am stopping now.
I finished reading page 161 before I decided to cheat and read up on some reviews. The 1-2 star reviews confirm what I have been thinking all along: this story is going no where. The 4-5 star reviews baffle me, just like this book!!!! I feel no attachment to the characters, I certainly do not feel nostalgia for the 50's. Now it is confirmed there is no gem waiting for me in pages 163-292, I am stopping now.
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