Lake Wobegon Holiday | Liberty: A Lake Wobegon Novel (Lake Wobegon Novels)

Small Town Satire | Liberty: A Lake Wobegon Novel (Lake Wobegon Novels) | Garrison Keillor

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	• Liberty: A Lake Wobegon Novel (Lake Wobegon Novels) Garrison Keillor Viking Adult, 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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amusing, but lightweight

I was hoping for more here. I have Pontoon, which I'll read in the expectation that it should be better than Liberty. What struck me in Liberty was the feeling that there just wasn't anything very original and creative: I didn't encounter anything that I hadn't seen before, and so it was a bit like watching a TV sitcom with a canned laughtrack. Keillor is certainly capable of much better stuff than this.

The story centers around Clint Bunsen, who is in charge of the Lake Wobegon Fourth of July Celebration and Parade for the last time. Bunsen has turned 60, his marriage, the town, and his work no longer interest him very much. He's involved with a woman half his age and is contemplating running for Congress--certainly a change of pace. There are plenty of groups of people who want to take part in the festivities, and Bunsen has attracted no end of ire by trying to prune some of them out of the picture. He has also just received DNA test results which show that he is primarily of Hispanic rather than Scandinavian ethnicity, which comes as a shock. So--lots and lots of crises, all piling up at the same time.

There are ways to make a small town whimsically endearing. The best novel that comes to mind in this regard is T.R. Pearson's wonderful A Short History of a Small Place, about Neely, North Carolina. Neely, like Lake Wobegon, has its eccentric people, and those who go beyond eccentric to peculiar. So I find myself thinking "what is it exactly that makes Neely endearing and Lake Wobegon in Liberty not very endearing?" It may be that in Pearson's Neely, you and the townspeople care about the eccentrics--they are like family, a round-heeled cousin or an alcoholic uncle, but still family. In Lake Wobegon in Liberty, it's more a collection of odd individuals, and less community. So Liberty is fun, but it lacks the power of A Short History. If you've never read Pearson's great trilogy Short History, The Last of How It Was, and Off for the Sweet Hereafter, you're missing some magnificent storytelling indeed. If you want a more northern small-town setting, Klosterman's Downtown Owl, just out, is well worth reading. I'll read Pontoon, and I'm hopeful about that.

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Lake Wobegon Holiday

All the community is back once again in Lake Wobegon. Clint falls in love with a young red headed girl who is trying persuade him to come back to California with her. The annual fourth of July parade become a fiasco with the governor. There are many unexpected twists and turns through out the book.
One thing I notice with this book as with his past previous books, Keillor has written a lot of crude, explicit sexual innuendos throughout the pages. I guess Keillor is trying to keep up with the now modern Lake Wobegon. I do have to say that his early writings of Lake Wobegon are better.
Liberty is a good book, and will keep you laughing and guessing what is going to happen to Clint, Clarance, Irene, and the gang at the Chatterbox Cafe.

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Small Town Satire

Liberty is the sixth book in the Lake Wobegon series by Garrison Keillor. In this installment of hijinks from the northern land, Clint Bunsen is having a mid-life crisis, or maybe it's a 3/4-life crisis. He just turned sixty, and his fellow citizens don't appreciate his talents as Chairman of the Fourth of July committee anymore. A DNA test told him his ancestors aren't who he thought they were, which means he's not who he thought he was. And to top it all off, he's lusting after the redhead who dresses as Miss Liberty for the parade- she's young enough to be his daughter.

Keillor's portrayal of small town life in Minnesota is rich and hilarious. Within the context of the Fourth of July parade, the reader meets so many flawed, but lovable characters and is taken on so many detours through the history of the town that one can't help but feel that he or she has known this place for a long time. I have not read the other Lake Wobegon books. This book is dark at times. Keillor is not afraid to take us into the sex lives of his characters. We see the numbing and baffling effects of media and technology on an older generation. We see desperate people clinging to any sense of identity they can find. Clint is depressed, but the reader has to keep in mind that Clint's stubborn assumption that his live is crap because of a simple mistake he made in his twenties is Keillor poking us in the ribs. At some point in our lives, we all want a time machine to let us go back and get life right. In the meantime, we look for something to fill us up, and we often look in foolish places. The book is not high art, but it at least tries to make the reader a little introspective.

Liberty is a satire of small town American life with its misplaced idealism and ridiculous rituals, but it also contains hope and the thought that even though life doesn't always turn out as picturesque as pop culture would have us believe it should, we can create meaning in our lives.

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Clint Bunsen is a burner

Garrison Keillor puts the spotlight on Clint Bunsen in this latest Lake Wobegon novel. Clint feels unappreciated for his leadership as chairman of Lake Wobegon's July Fourth celebration. He has rubbed quite a few townsfolk the wrong way and Clint is having a rough time of it.

His brother Clarence wants Clint to buy out Clarence's share of Bunsen Motors, a business that isn't exactly thriving. Clint is bored with his wife and his life. He is turning 60 and he feels like he has missed out on his chance for happiness until he meets a lovely young woman on the internet....

Fans of A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION will enjoy this book. In contrast to PONTOON, the previous installment in the series, LIBERTY is much darker with a lot less laughs. Keillor's distinctive voice is there but where PONTOON was a romp, LIBERTY is more of a tromp. Clint's depressive persona drags the humor down. If you want to laugh check out PONTOON. If you want to indulge Clint's angst, check out LIBERTY.

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A national holiday in Lake Wobegon is always gaudy and joyful. But what is going on between Clint Bunsen and Miss Liberty?

Clint Bunsen is one of the old reliables in Lake Wobegon? the treasurer of the Lutheran church and the auto mechanic who starts your car on below-zero mornings. For six years he has run the Fourth of July parade, turning what was once a line of pickup trucks and girls pushing baby carriages that hold their cats into an event of dazzling spectacle. Blazing bands, marching units, cannons, horses, a fireworks show, and the famous Living Flag?one thousand men and women wearing red, white, or blue, standing in formation?have attracted the attention of CNN and prompted the governor to put in an appearance as well. The town is dizzy with anticipation. Until, that is, they hear of Clint?s ambition to run for Congress. They?re embarrassed for him. They know him too well?his unfortunate episodes involving vodka sours, his rocky marriage. And then there is his friendship, or whatever it is, with the twenty-four-year-old girl who dresses up as the Statue of Liberty for the parade. It?s rumored that underneath those robes she is buck naked, and that her torch contains a quart of booze.

It?s Lake Wobegon as it?s always been?good loving people who drive each other crazy.

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reviews: page 1, 2