Product Description

At only £12.99, a trip to America and back has to be the best deal in town - and no airport queues! Courtesy of Garrison Keillor, we go to small town anywhere which is nowhere and everywhere, brought to irreverent life with a humour and candour. Keillor writes and reads beautifully in his mellifluous voice that is as irresistibly smooth as ice-cream melting on warm apple pie.

The events start in the 1950s and follow the seasons including the first smooth slide on the frozen lake and the sticky heat of summer full of passions and traumas. We relive the living flag with 500 baseball- capped heads in red, white and blue bringing chaos to the stars and stripes. As a small boy, the author recalls Memorial day with the agony of trying to remember the 23rd Psalm, and the school-room reeking of disinfectant and floor wax, " the smell of patriotism" beneath Washington's sour look and the kindly gaze of Lincoln.

We meet the family: poor because they had a vacuum cleaner had such poor suction that the hairballs had to be stuffed into it and with a strict religious code, believing that "you worked in the sun and lay in the shade" and that "air-conditioning was for the weak and indolent". As Keillor grew up and embarked on the treacherous dating game, he had to cope with taking his date out in a car covered in verses from the Bible picked out in red reflective beading - a true passion killer for a hopeful teenager!

With acute observations Keillor brings to life the local inhabitants: his teacher's fat upper arms, individually named Hoppy and Bob, an affectionate tribute, and Pete Peterson, the duck-hunter's duck-hunter, who shot duck from bed! The portraits are varied: warm and funny or savagely revealing.

Garrison Keillor is rather like the statue to the unknown Norwegian who stands in Main Street with grass stubbornly growing out of his ear, defying all attempts to remove it: you can take the man out of Lake Wobegon but you can't take Lake Wobegon out of the man. The state of Minnesota is the nicknamed the " Land of 10,000 Lakes" and we are glad to have had a chance to spend a while beside one of them. An irresistible listen!

Review in the Bath Chronicle, by Lynda Bevan, September 2005

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8279 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-02
• Released on: 2003-06-02
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Audiobook
• Binding: Audio CD

Synopsis
Garrison Keillor reads his own account of life in small-town America. Often funny, sometimes sad, his detailed reminiscences of Lake Wobegon captured the public's imagination when it was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Customer Reviews

Lie back and relax ...
Listen to the CD - then read the book. Once you've got Keillor's voice in your head, you'll never read his books the same way again. Gentle humour about growing up in Lake Wobegon, the town the map-makers missed (yes, it's in Mist County). Carefully observed detail, related with love (and occasionally impatience). Yes, this is small-town America, and eventually Keillor escaped to the big city. These are the memories of his childhood.

Excellent CD!
This CD is superb - this was my introduction to Keillor when I heard this on Radio 4 and had to go out and buy the book. This is a witty and funny cd - if you are looking for belly laughs go elsewhere as this is subtle humour at its best. Hearing this led me to buy all of Keillors books - and I'm yet to be disappointed!

Hang on!
I've been surprised and sorry to see the number of negative reviews 'Lake Wobegon Days'... has everyone missed the point here? This is a really smashing, intimate book. It's not directly autobiographical, but there's elements of autobiography throughout. Lake Wobegon's not a real place, but it may as well be by the time you've finished the book. There is nothing beige or flat about this book. It's quick, it's witty, it's affectionate and discerning and it's a bloomin' bargain at the price. American literature doesn't come much better than this. I urge you to read it. Better still, listen to it on audiobook - Keillor's delivery is superb. You'll laugh quietly to yourself on public transport for days afterwards.