Synopses & Reviews
The first novel in four years from "the funniest American writer still open for business" (
Time) depicts the most harrowing time of life in Lake Wobegon adolescence.
Meet fourteen-year-old Gary. A self-described "tree toad," a sly and endearing geek, Gary has many unwieldy passions, chief among them his cousin Kate, his Underwood typewriter, and the soft-porn masterpiece High School Orgies. The folks of Lake Wobegon don't have much patience for a kid's ungodly obsessions, and so Gary manages to filter the hormonal earthquake that is puberty and his hopeless devotion to glamorous, rebellious Kate through his fantastic yarns. With every marvelous story he moves a few steps closer to becoming a writer. And when Kate gets herself into trouble with the local baseball star, Gary also experiences the first pangs of a broken heart.
With his trademark gift for treading "a line delicate as a cobweb between satire and sentiment" (Cleveland Plain Dealer), Garrison Keillor brilliantly captures a newly minted postwar America and delivers an unforgettable comedy about a writer coming of age in the rural mid-west.
Review
"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....Although the denouement is more fizzle than bang, avid Keillorites will be left shouting 'more.'" Publishers Weekly
Review
"This coming-of-age tale is told in Keillor's trademark humorous, bittersweet fashion. It is a quick and enjoyable read." Booklist
Review
"It's a delightful comic romp, featuring characters who deserve to become legends....Think Huckleberry Finn in hormonal overdrive, or Penrod with a perpetual erection. They won't be assigning this one in elementary schools, but adults of all ages should find Keillor's refreshingly impudent Americana just about irresistible." Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Garrison Keillor was born in Anoka, Minnesota, and is the host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio. He is the author of nine books, including the bestselling Lake Wobegon Days and Wobegon Boy. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he lives in St. Paul with his wife and daughter.