Book Review: Wobegon Boy by Garrison Keillor

Many readers, I suspect, read “Wobegon Boy” after cultivating a heartfelt endearment to Keillor’s radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion.” I found this novel in a thrift shop after the cover art caught my eye. It stood on my shelf for years before I finally came around to reading it last summer. “Wobegon Boy” chronicles the life and times of John Tollefson, who leaves Lake Wobegon to make a life for himself in Red Cliff, NY. He meets and falls in love with Alida Freeman, visits home, struggles to fulfill his dreams, and along the way we are treated to a cornucopia of tales about his ancestors and family.

Perhaps any other writer attempting this style would fail to capture the sepia-toned nostalgia and compelling absorption of Keillor’s structuring and frequent usage of tangential narratives, but Keillor never misses a beat. John’s fictional life is as familiar as any real person I’ve ever met and Keillor’s vision brings an abundance of color and dimension to the story John tells and, in turn, learns about his family. At over 300 pages, Keillor has crafted an entertaining, thoughtful, and wonderful story about life, love, romance, family, and history.

Keillor weaves parallels and contrasts seamlessly. For example, there are parallels between Alida’s historical research into a famous Norwegian and John’s anecdotes about Norwegian heritage; and his romanticism, a tad bit forward for a Lutheran, is familiar to how his father courted his mother, ‘I want to be next to you for the rest of my life’. John, despite escaping Lake Wobegon, never truly leaves it. He still entertains the notion, if only subconsciously and peripherally, that the folk back home will recognize his achievements. In fact, John still carries his Lutheran upbringing with him, and the Lake Wobegon ideals of his childhood never disappear from the palate of his adulthood.

Through our narrator, Keillor expresses insight into love, marriage, and the inadvertent silliness of being politically correct. In his benevolent way, Keillor addresses how the frictions of living together can diminish a romance. But neither the author, nor John, shy away from marriage. John wants nothing more than to marry Alida, who is skeptical of that old tradition, and fears it will sour their relationship. But the book offers a light of hope when Alida, despite her reservations, agrees to marry John, after realizing how much she love him; her advice is both practical and heartfelt: “Never get so angry at me that you can’t remember how it was today.”

This is a terrific novel from a master writer. I recommend this novel, not just to fans of “The Prairie Home Companion”, but to anyone who enjoys an absorbing, cozy read on how to deal with people and life itself.