Garrison Keillor - Lake Wobegon Summer 1956

All aboard!--the nostalgia train as we take a trip back in time with Garrison Keillor (as 14 year-old Gary) as he vividly and humorously rambles on about his old green house on Green Street, Lake Wobegon, Minnesota...the dandy lions on the front lawn...the dog on the front porch...the Andersons who live next door...the "evil" older sister...the uptight, worry-wart dad who is contrasted by the sunny-even-on-a-cloudy-day mom who says, "Why carry rocks in your pockets?"

Without-girlfriend Gary spends his Saturday nights playing monopoly with his mom, and drinking ginger ale, or writing in his study(bedroom) when he is sent there for punishment. We are introduced to young Gary's earliest short stories about turds, tornados and talking dogs.

Young Gary seems to have a penchant for the word "buger." He likes to insert it in movie/tv titles: Buger Without A Cause, The Lone Buger, Leave It To Buger (the buger jokes got a little old). While reading the chapter, I thought, "Why doesn't he just look in his buger-saurus and find a new word?"

"When my sister walks, her butt cheeks look like two pigs fighting in a burlap bag..."--this quote shows the sibling rivalry between young Gary and the "evil" older sister. Such vivid characterizations made me want to keep reading, if for no other reason than to find out what he's going to say next.

He writes odes to his cousin Kate whom he adores...chapters about baseball and gym class and sex and the farm...the high school assembly...and MORE SEX...or at least he fantasized about it-on second thought, he and his cousin Kate...well, read the book and find out.

I found Garrison's nostalgic memories to be amusing when I was sober, and hysterically funny when I was drunk or on medication (I even laughed at the turd jokes). The chapters could be described as the Prairie Home Companion meets Sex in the City.

So if it's Saturday night, and you don't have a date, and you're sick of playing monopoly with your too-sunny mom, read this wonderful tome...but not aloud...think of the children.