Minnesota Bard

Spam Recipe Judging
Garrison Keillor judging a Spam contest

Destination: Minneapolis

Book: Pontoon by Garrison Keillor

The Great American Road Trip visited Minnesota recently, with an interview with William Kent Krueger, but when I read this Garrison Keillor book, I thought I would return for another visit.

Many states can claim native daughters and sons who are distinguished writers. Many authors write evocatively about their own corner of the country. But not too many states have their own Bard.

Minnesota‘s Garrison Keillor creates a parallel universe to his native state and sings its virtues and its quirks.  We know him mainly from his long running radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, which he broadcasts from St. Paul Minnesota. But his fertile imagination also has created a dozen or so books about his fictional home town, Lake Woebegon.

I listen to the radio show from time to time and have seen the movie by the same name, but I had never read one of his books.  I picked up Pontoon from the local library.  It makes a funny, light summer read, even if you have never heard of Lake Woebegon before, and are not familiar with The Sidetrack Tap, The Chatterbox Cafe, and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery. And since he takes his radio show on the road frequently, Keillor makes a perfect subject for the Great American Road Trip.

If you have listened to Keillor, you will hear his voice in your mind, as he tells the story of believable, yet unique and strange small town residents.  Basically, Pontoon spins two yarns that inevitably intersect with the force of a freeway collision. (Not that Lake Woebegone has a freeway).

The main character dies in the first chapter and the book follows the effects of her life and her death on a collection of family and friends.  Meanwhile, a former daughter of the town returns for her wedding.  Death and love–a funeral and a wedding–you can’t put together a  much better framework for a story.

Of course this being Keillor, we get plenty of meanders into other stories–like the Elvis impersonator and the visiting Danish Lutheran pastors.

Keillor sums up the character of northern Minnesotans who struggle through tough winters and don’t expect a lot out of life. “And so we are not lighthearted Mediterranean people.  We’re Lutherans. Even the Catholics are.”  Their favorite saying is “It could be worse, that’s for sure.

I particularly like his take on the cuisine. They are, he says, “Good eaters who went for recipes that start out Brown a pound of ground beef and six strips of bacon and in a separate pan melt a pound of butter.”

Concise one-liners like this that pinpoint the culture  demonstrate Keillor’s wit and skill. Pontoon is just one of a dozen books he has written about Lake Woebegone, and when he launches into one of his stories on the radio show with a line like, “It’s been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone,” the audience roars.

My own experience with Minnesota goes back to my attendance at a theater festival in Minneapolis. Because despite the unsophisticated residents that Keillor portrays, Minnesota has a rich cultural life with one of the best regional theaters in the country, The Guthrie, and the best Children’s Theater, not to mention art museums in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul). There are so many lakes in Minnesota (The Land of 10,000 Lakes) that I’m not sure anyone has an accurate count, but the countryside is beautiful, and a great place for a road trip destination.

See more about Minnesota at Midwest Guest.

The photo of Garrison Keillor above showing why he is a a radio personality rather than a TV personality, is from Flickr used by Creative Commons License.

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About Vera Marie Badertscher

A freelance writer who loves to travel. When she is not traveling she is reading about travel. When she is not reading or traveling, she is sharing with the readers of A Traveler's Library, or recreating her family's past at Ancestors In Aprons . She has written for Reel Life With Jane, Life is a Trip and other websites. Also co-author of a biography, Quincy Tahoma, The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist. Contact Vera Marie by e-mail.

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