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Liberty: A Novel of Lake Wobegon (Lake Wobegon Series)
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Book Description
Liberty is the brilliant follow up to Pontoon, Garrison Keillor's acclaimed return to Lake Wobegon.
Product Description
A national holiday in Lake Wobegon is always gaudy and joyful. But what is going on between Clint Bunsen and Miss Liberty? Clint 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, and has turned into an event of dazzling spectacle that has 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 - his unfortunate episodes involving vodka sours, his rocky marriage. And then there's his friendship with the twenty-four-year-old girl dressed 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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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Garrison is back to his best form in this familiar territory. All the regulars,as amusing as ever, are here in all their glory. Who could dream up the Leaping Lutheran Parachute team or Fabulous Frisbee Dogs of Fergus Falls? Our Mr.Keillor that's who.
He also writes a good story reflecting the petty jealousies and betrayals of small town politics anywhere.
Our hero Clint Bunsen is a decent man doing the best he can ,but for him it is not quite enough. He tried to escape his smalltown and the role expected of him when a young man, but didn't break free. Will he now in his later years with his young exciting lover flee his respectable, but unfulfilling life.Most guys of his age, if honest, can empathise with his dilemmas [hope my wife doesn't read this].The story builds against the backdrop of the incident filled Fourth of July big parade to the final showdown involving our three main characters.
Humour is our author's main stock in trade, but here we also have a fine yarn with a few 'adult' passages for good measure. For those familiar with Lake Wobegon this volume is like pulling on a pair of old comfortable slippers in front of a log fire on a winters night. For new readers ;you have a treat in store.
He also writes a good story reflecting the petty jealousies and betrayals of small town politics anywhere.
Our hero Clint Bunsen is a decent man doing the best he can ,but for him it is not quite enough. He tried to escape his smalltown and the role expected of him when a young man, but didn't break free. Will he now in his later years with his young exciting lover flee his respectable, but unfulfilling life.Most guys of his age, if honest, can empathise with his dilemmas [hope my wife doesn't read this].The story builds against the backdrop of the incident filled Fourth of July big parade to the final showdown involving our three main characters.
Humour is our author's main stock in trade, but here we also have a fine yarn with a few 'adult' passages for good measure. For those familiar with Lake Wobegon this volume is like pulling on a pair of old comfortable slippers in front of a log fire on a winters night. For new readers ;you have a treat in store.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
More masterfully dry storytelling from one of America's gentlest and most humane observers of the quirks and oddities of everyday folk. Clint Bunsen, organiser of the annual (and magnificent) 4th July parade, struggles with two sorts of liberty: one foisted upon him as organiser of the parade itself, with all the attendant twists, turns and irritations his fellow Lake Wobegonians serve up so effortlessly, simply by virtue of being themselves; and the other offered by a 24 year-old woman (who parades as the Statue of Liberty, supposedly naked beneath her pageant costume), with whom he begins an affair. As ever with Keillor, the tale moves to a gentle but ever so funny climax as the parade hits the centre of town, and Bunsen's two liberties collide. Reflective, occasionally bizarre, and relentlessly wry.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Keillor's Lake Wobegon tales are a wonder. Based on monologues from his weekly radio programme, which seems to have been going out for ever (you can get it here in the UK on BBC7) they sprawl and ramble, circling the point, looping in and out with deadpan digressions, then grab whatever issue he has in his sights like some kind of deadly issue grabbing thing.
This is another slice of life from the imaginary town, structured loosely around Clint Bunsen's mid (late-mid?) life crisis. One of the repeating themes that Keillor has explored over the years is escape - or not - getting out of the small town to sample freedoms available elsewhere: or coming back home again. Clint's dilemma is whether to take a chance - his last chance - and bolt for liberty amidst a cloud of scandal, or to stay. It plays out against a background of the town's Fourth of July parade, peopled by a collection of interesting, scary, irritating, sympathetic and eccentric Wobegoners.
One of the advantages of these stories is that the deep backhistory that has been created over the years makes everything and everyone so real. The disadvantage is perhaps that each serving feels a bit like all the others - and certainly the finale of this book has similarities with the last one, Pontoon, which also culminated in collective mayhem by the lake.
That's a very slight criticism - I found "Liberty" deeply enjoyable and a satisfying read. While some of the cultural allusions are lost on this UK reader (there's a role for an annotated edition, perhaps...) I didn't worry too much.
The disrespect shown to cricket is, of course, another matter entirely...
This is another slice of life from the imaginary town, structured loosely around Clint Bunsen's mid (late-mid?) life crisis. One of the repeating themes that Keillor has explored over the years is escape - or not - getting out of the small town to sample freedoms available elsewhere: or coming back home again. Clint's dilemma is whether to take a chance - his last chance - and bolt for liberty amidst a cloud of scandal, or to stay. It plays out against a background of the town's Fourth of July parade, peopled by a collection of interesting, scary, irritating, sympathetic and eccentric Wobegoners.
One of the advantages of these stories is that the deep backhistory that has been created over the years makes everything and everyone so real. The disadvantage is perhaps that each serving feels a bit like all the others - and certainly the finale of this book has similarities with the last one, Pontoon, which also culminated in collective mayhem by the lake.
That's a very slight criticism - I found "Liberty" deeply enjoyable and a satisfying read. While some of the cultural allusions are lost on this UK reader (there's a role for an annotated edition, perhaps...) I didn't worry too much.
The disrespect shown to cricket is, of course, another matter entirely...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Freedom to wander through Lake Wobegon
Having recently read Pontoon which i loved, i came across Liberty and had to read it.Liberty is set around the preparations for july 4th in lake wobegon and we have all the petty... Read more
Published 20 months ago by A. Browne
Lovely book
I've always been a fan of Garrison Keillor - radio story telling and novels - but in recent years have not been there. Read more
Published on 17 May 2010 by MAP
Liberty
The book:
Classic Keillor, but with a bit of extra `spice'. Still the enchanted town of Wobegon, but things have moved-on a little. Read more
Classic Keillor, but with a bit of extra `spice'. Still the enchanted town of Wobegon, but things have moved-on a little. Read more
Published on 7 April 2010 by R. ALLAN
more wobegon
an enjoyable farcical romp through the well-known Wobegon characters and their foibles. Centred on the Bunsens this time but full of incident and the usual Keillor irony.
Published on 28 Feb 2010 by michele
Liberty
Another winner from Garrison Keillor. More of the sideways look and droll sense of humor that we have come to expect from the best American humorist yet.
Published on 28 July 2009 by Mr. Brian D. Roberts
Laugh Out Loud
This is Garrison Keillor on top form. His story of the events surrounding Clint Bunsen's attempts to organise Lake Wobegone's Fourth of July celebrations while suffering a crisis... Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2009 by M. E. Harvey
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