Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories: Keillor, Garrison: 9780670819768: Amazon.com: Books

Life in a small town. I feel as though Garrison Keillor must have lived here in my small town. His wit and humor and kindness permeate each and every character. There is pathos, irony, heartbreak. I could write the same stories, but I would have to leave town! How do you do that Garrison? It's a gentle read, one that I hated to come to an end. In this crazy, pressure cooker bombed world, it was a comfort. Thank you!

This is very funny. The baritone voice echoes in my.mind... I always wondered, listening to A Prairie Home Companion, does he really make this stuff up as he goes? What an incredibly agile mind. Droll, ironic, insightful in the humor of these small town ... people. Germans and Norwegians .... not Irish, Germans and Italians as in my own Indiana home. Much larger than lake woebegon. A part of America that still exists? It saddens me to think that within my lifetime, Sunday stopped being a day where stores remained closed. Our wants became needs and one bread winner wasn't enough. Now, the NEW smirks up the entire internet in ... an hour ... each hour ... a new ebb and flow that sucks the inter-verse down like hotdish tunoodle casserole ... the chattering

Nice.

These are some of his best stories from his mythical world of Wobegon. If you are a fan of the old shows, you will recognize one or two of these tales - or at least these versions of them. He undoubtedly recycled some over the years, but in this era, he was in peak form. Reading them again, they make clear why Keillor one of the best writers of his life and times, if not truly our Mark Twain. Never sliding into fake folksiness, his observational style remains funny, poignant, pithy, clear headed and nothing short of everything that we expect from this marvelous American writer. Thank you, Garrison!!

I love reading this book, and it's one of the very few books I keep and re-read because it's so dang enjoyable. I am from the Midwest and relate 100% to the things Keillor writes about. Characters in this book are people I grew up with - the fat aunt who "did't want to say anything" to make anyone mad but would fume in obvious silence - the old man with the Pioneer Seed Corn cap. The '66 Chevy that has just a few thousand mile on her. Sweet corn - garden grown tomatoes - butchering your own chicken - Lutheran pastors - the taverns, the weather, the kids in town. I read this book aloud (sometimes edited on the fly by me) to my kids when we went camping. One daughter wants the book for her own now and I must order the kindle edition for myself. I really love this book. I don't think it's for everyone but it is definitely for me because I know these people.