Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
``Home,'' in Keillor's fictional world, is Lake Wobegon (the ``Gateway to Central Minnesota''), which the radio humorist introduced in print in Lake Wobegon Days. This collection of stories set in Lake Wobegon is taken from monologues performed on A Prairie Home Companion, Keillor's radio show; each one chronicles some kind of leave-taking or homecoming: trips to Minneapolis, high school graduations, attending the Minnesota State Fair, a waitress quitting her job at the Chatterbox Cafe, a boy joining the army, Father Emil retiring from Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility, family members returning to Lake Wobegon for Christmas. In the last story, from Keillor's final show, the storyteller bids farewell to his beloved hometown. Keillor has a rare gift for celebrating and finding humor in commonplace events, and his affection for his characters and for small-town life shines through. These short narratives survive the transition from performance to print beautifully; they are spare, artfully crafted vignettes that will move readers as well as entertain them. Some tales are wildly hilarious, others gently poignantbut all are simply wonderful. 750,000 first printing; BOMC and QPBC main selections; first serial to the Atlantic. (October 5) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
For the fans, here's a round-up of 36 monologues from Keillor's Prairie Home Companion radio show, which went off the air on June 13. The reader who is unacquainted with the show or with Keillor's best selling book Lake Wobegon Days may make little sense of these tales of ordinary, everyday events in the lives of unspectacular people living in the imaginary but wholly believable village of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota; but for the faithful, and there are hundreds of thousands such, this new book will be welcomed like a letter from the home town in which one is brought up to date on what relatives, friends, and others have been doing lately. For them the adventures never stale and the characters never bore. There is little danger that the book will gather dust in the library. A.J. Anderson, Graduate Sch. of Library & Information Sci e nce, Simmons Coll., Boston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Heartily entertaining follow-up to Keillor's major Lake Wobegon success, comprising 36 interconnected Wobegon stories--including Keillor's farewell monologue from the final Prairie Home Companion radio broadcast. It has been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon--well, not so quiet when you consider the lightning that struck the Tollerud farm Tuesday, or Wally's new pontoon boat that capsized with a crew of 24 Lutheran ministers on board, or Father Emil's announcement that he'd be leaving Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility. Leaving? Apparently so--and with his now-familiar and deeply effective blend of humor, nostalgia, and horse sense, Keillor takes another stroll through town, this time organizing the tour around characters who, for one reason or another, have left, are leaving, or think they're leaving Lake Wobegon. There are Exiles like Larry the Sad Boy and Eddie the Jealous Boy returning for Christmas dinner, guys that can't stay away, though more than a few locals wish they could; there's Dale gone off to join the Navy, and Darlene packing it in at the Chatterbox Cafe; and there's Father Emil, who, much as he talks about quitting, just can't seem to buck the Wobegon habit. If Lake Wobegon defined the essential and slightly sentimentalized American town, Leaving Home portrays it in a state of flux and recombination. But though divorce, military service, and big-city money hover near the periphery, Wobegon endures, anchored in the firm conviction that you don't have to be a big shot to have a good time, that, as far as happiness goes, it doesn't get much better than having a cool beer at Wally's Sidetrack Tap. Once again, Keillor has shown himself to be in superb command of his craft, dusting and polishing American lore and idiom up to a warm glow, and handling his characters with equal measures of humor and affection. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
