WOBEGON BOY -- Garrison Keillor

Viking -- hc
New York -- ©1997 -- 305pp
ISBN: 0-670-87807-3

A young man from Lake Wobegon, Minnesota decides to hed for greener, or more active, pastures and moves to Upstate New York.  But as most of us know, and the young man must discover, you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy.

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Garrison Keillor writes very cleanly. Meaning...his style is simple and direct. There's some purple prose, and he does veer from stating a point to describing an event or character that is only marginally related to what he was initially writing about, but he does bring it back on topic. If you are familiar with his PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION radio show, then this isn't anything new to you.

I chuckled, I laughed out loud, I recognized myself more than once. It was a pleasant way to pass some reading time. But I didn't necessarily become enriched or enlightened in any way. Does one need to become enriched or enlightened? No. But once I finished reading it, it was already a book that I knew I wouldn't be thinking about again. In a year or so, I'll wonder if I ever read it. It's just not memorable.

How do you rate a book like that? It wasn't bad, but you never really care about anyone or any thing that's happening. It's a very middle-or-the-road book. So you give it a middle-of-the-road rating.

Three stars.

If you like Keillor's radio show, specifically the News From Lake Wobegon segment, then you'll probably enjoy this book. If you're new to Keillor, maybe this isn't the place to start.