Leaving Home

Lake Wobegon #2

by Garrison Keillor

Revisit the beguiling comic world of Lake Wobegon. In the first collection of Lake Wobegon monologues, Keillor tells readers more about some of the people from Lake Wobegon Days and introduces some new faces. "Leaving Home is a book of exceptional charm . . . delightful . . . genuinely touching".--The Wall Street Journal.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Short Stories, Contemporary, American, Literature, Book Club

244 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 6, 1987

About the author

Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion (called Garrison Keillor's Radio Show in some international syndication), which he hosted from 1974 to 2016. Keillor created the fictional Minnesota town Lake Wobegon, the setting of many of his books, including Lake Wobegon Days and Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories. Other creations include Guy Noir, a detective voiced by Keillor who appeared in A Prairie Home Companion comic skits. Keillor is also the creator of the five-minute daily radio/podcast program The Writer's Almanac, which pairs poems of his choice with a script about important literary, historical, and scientific events that coincided with that date in history.
In November 2017, Minnesota Public Radio cut all business ties with Keillor after an allegation of inappropriate behavior with a freelance writer for A Prairie Home Companion. On April 13, 2018, MPR and Keillor announced a settlement that allows archives of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac to be publicly available again, and soon thereafter, Keillor began publishing new episodes of The Writer's Almanac on his website. He also continues to tour a stage version of A Prairie Home Companion, although these shows are not broadcast by MPR or American Public Media.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garrison Keillor is my favorite storyteller. He has an amazing gift of calming and soothing and forcing you to think and remember and contemplate and enjoy – all in the half stupor of contentment. Most of these stories don’t even have a tangible point. There’s no moral. There’s no lesson to be learned or underlying archetypal subplot defining a genre and exploding with controversy. They’re just stories about a small town in Minnesota and the people’s lives who live there. And part of that is the essence of what makes them so wonderful. The illustrations and allusions and quirky personality makes up 49% of it’s greatness – and their simplicity makes up another 49%. And the last two percent, is just pure Garrison Keillor magic.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always with Keillor, my thoughts on his fiction are colored by being from a place pretty similar to the Lake Wobegone of his books. I always think of the people he writes about as "my people" and am therefore prepossesed to liking his work. Still, I don't think I'm way off base by saying this book has a lot of humanity in it.

If I have it right, all of the 30 or so chapters that make up Leaving Home are taken from Keillor's radio show and transcribed. As usual, they concern the small time goings-on in a small Minnesota community. The characters feels true to life--both small-minded and sometimes generous. I was often touched by the writing, and though this book is less dark than some of Keillor's other published work that did not appear on the radio, there is still a surprisingly small amount of nostolgia.

In my view, the Upper Plains states couldn't find a better chronicler of their collective experience than Keillor. Like the citizens themselves, Keillor's work is subdued, with gentle humor. Sometimes reactionary, sometimes seeking escape, sometimes reveling in the familiar and sometimes coming to terms with their own lives with a surprising honesty.

[L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

This is a straight down the middle book. It wasn't interesting, it wasn't boring. It wasn't good, it wasn't bad. It just was. Garrison Keillor is both participant and omniscient god as he relates the stories of various inhabitants of Lake Wobegon. Stories that ultimately don't go anywhere or accomplish anything. I know there are readers who don't mind if a story has no purpose.

I am not one of those people.

[Aarica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best offering but entertaining in some of the short stories. Keillor has stronger books I would recommend. 2.5 stars.

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

From my 1991 Journal:

I am reading Leaving Home, only it is more like sitting up and paying attention to life. Garrison Keillor captures the beauty in the most mundane of moments. Here are some lines I like:

Every summer I'm a little bigger, but riding the ferris wheel, I feel the same as ever, I feel eternal. . .The wheel carries us up high, high, high, and stops, and we sit swaying, creaking in the dark . . .[one year I had this vision]: little kids holding on to their daddy's hand, and he is me. He looks down on them with love and buys them another corn dog. They are worried they will lose him, they hang on to his leg with one hand, eat with the other. This vision is unbearably wonderful. Then the wheel brings me down to the ground. We get off and other people get on. Thank you, dear God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough." (p. 124)

Old age is like birds in the winter. It's hard to keep going. But you still have your good days, and one good day makes you want to keep on. I use to get so upset if any little thing went wrong. Now everything goes wrong and it doesn't bother me, and some little thing is so wonderful--if my son writes me a letter, that's wonderful. And if he puts in a picture of my grandchildren, then that's just about everything." (p.146)

Thank you Garrison Keillor for loving life and taking the time to know it.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

'It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon'...I don't often re-read books as I've always got too many new ones waiting to be read, but I love Garrison Keillor's stories so much that I'm always happy to read them again. I first read Leaving Home back in the eighties, and, feeling the need for a warm, comforting sort of midwinter read, picked it off my bookshelf as I finished my last book and was soon lost in Keillor's wonderful stories of life among the Norwegian Lutherans of this forgotten corner of northern Minnesota. I admire his humour, his ability to make great stories out of the simplest and most ordinary of lives, and his love for his characters. There's a passage in 'Hansel', probably my favourite story in the collection, that sums this up very well: 'walking in the mysterious light of a warm snowy winter night in Lake Wobegon, it's not certain what year this is but it is certain that in this world that we think we know so well, and in our life that we're always talking about, there is a great mystery and powerful music playing that we don't hear and stories full of magic, so many stories that life isn't long enough to tell them all'. A quiet week in Lake Wobegon perhaps, but each of those quiet weeks has plenty of stories full of music and magic. C

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the amusing and stirring vinettes about the fictional town of Lake Wobegone. I listen to the Prarie Home Companion News From Lake Wobegone podcast (oh technology, linking the lost art of live radio with my interweb surfing), and I heard Keillor's slow, flat voice in my head the whole time I was reading this book. I had a little trouble telling who the narrator was at first - was it Keillor, a non-specific townsperson, someone else? - until another character mentioned the narrator by name (Gary, hehee). I'm excited to read his new LW novel, Pontoon, which I got at the bookstore yesterday.

[Tamara Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. K, You were my gateway to storytelling. I’ve listened to Lake Wobegon tales since high school in northern Michigan. I love how you weave localisms into your work. It’s so believable! I’m pretty sure I know some of those characters in the small town where I grew up. I now live in California, though (less Lutherans). I have several of your books: "Leaving Home" has been a real comfort to me out west. My family and I listen to your stories on road-trips, too. I’ll never retire my old tapes.

[theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

classic stories of lake woebegone, funny as all hell. i love prairie home companion so when i found this for free outside of the very cute jackson, nh library i scooped it up. very easy reading and perfect for an afternoon on a screened in porch in a small town.

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keillor's voice resonates through print just as distinctly as it does on the radio. Each of these stories adds up to paint a picture of Lake Wobegon, the town that reminds us to slow down and enjoy life and all of its little parts. While the experience isn't quite the same as listening to A Prairie Home Companion, the book still takes us to the small Minnesota prairie town that warms our hearts and makes gives readers a feeling of being home and reflecting on all the little idiosyncrasies that make our hometowns unique. No one really leaves home in this book, at least not for long, but then again, nobody truly leaves their hometown either, making this book an accurate reflection on life. Highly recommend.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoyed the Lake Wobegon segments on "A Prairie Home Companion", this collection of essays is priceless. If you can channel Garrison Keillor's voice and slow reading style, you will get more out them. Even if you can't, my advice is to take your time with each one. The humor is at times laugh out loud silly and at times subtle, emotional and sadly ironic.

Keillor is a master of holding up a mirror to show we all suffer from the same wants of safety and security and a place to call home to the same fears of being forgotten, losing our loved ones and losing our place in society. Grab a cup of coffee, settle into your favorite reading chair and spend some time with the folks of Lake Wobegon. It will be time well spent, I assure you.

[keith koenigsberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another in the Lake Wobegon franchise, this book is a compendium of, what seems to be, his radio monologues. They offer the familiar tableau, but are a shade less enjoyable than his others (below). Perhaps they suffer from the weekly nature - some are better than others, and they don't hang together as a narrative. They come off as sketches for what we know can be grander. Highly recommend his other books but save this one for last.

[Larry Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garrison has a gift for telling stories. Most of the stories I found myself quietly chuckling to myself as he subtly weaves his humor into some of most innocent sounding statements. Other stories I found myself laughing out loud, sometimes to the point of tears, as the characters find themselves in some the most absurd situations.

[Cody Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rarely has a book felt so organically Minnesotan, so effortlessly in tune with the quirks and charms of small-town living. These are stories that make you nostalgic for your own home, your own town, your own people — even perhaps the ones you have right now.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.”

[Diana Holdridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Been years since I've read this one and so very happy to read again! I adore Garrison Keillor, funny and sweet and intelligent and wise! Truly wonderful book!

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Return to Lake Wobegon (for me)

Originally published in 1987.

I stepped away from Garrison Keillor for a while. I don't know why, but I forgot about Lake Wobegon for about 15 years. But, I have returned for the occasional visit for a couple of years now and I find that I missed these stories. Having grown up Lutheran in rural Indiana I find quite a connection with these stories.

Keillor melancholy yet heartwarming stories of the people in and around the fictional Minnesota town of Lake Wobegon are worth a re-visit if you have stayed away. Deft turns of the phrase like "Corinne doesn't believe in God, but there is some evidence to show that God believes in her. She has a gift to teach, a sacred gift. Fifteen years in dreary bluish-green classrooms, pacing as she talks, this solid woman carries a flame" (p. 23) make you nod your head in appreciation.

Towards the end, a couple from Lake Wobegon is trying to take a trip to Hawaii. Keillor's extended discussion on why the glamour of "paradise" is wasted on Minnesotans and how heaven will be just as wasted is great sly understated humor with a sweet comment that starts with...

Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2013/...

[Lucynell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best short story collections I have ever read. This is the kind of stuff that made me fall in love with reading. The sort of book I am always, always after. I knew nothing about it when I picked it up I don't know when, or where for that matter, and only later found that it is part of the celebrated A Prairie Home Companion radio show; the monologues from that show titled News From Lake Wobegon 'slightly revised for print publication.' It is what it sounds like - everyday stories about everyday people in a small American town. There's beauty here and wisdom and compassion and more laughs than you can see coming and absurdity and irony and the whole spectrum of the human condition and it is all so breathlessly quiet and humble. There's 38 stories, about five or six pages each, and literally one or maybe two are less than what I would call perfect. It's that good. Of course, tastes vary and the author's stoicism and impassiveness may annoy some but the in the great tradition of American short stories, make that in the great tradition of storytelling, the stories are what matter the most and through them you come to appreciate the author's craftsmanship and yes, unobtrusiveness.

[Jillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last year, here in Australia, I had a visitor from Minnesota. My brother reminded me of Garrison Keillor and bought me a copy of this book. We had listened to his radio broadcasts in the 80s.

It was a joy to read these broadcasts. Keillor conjures the community with such affection. His story-telling is at its best when direct - with short and deceptively simple sentences that undercut each other:

"Daryl is forty-two years old and he's got no more ownership of this farm than if he'd gone off and been a drunk like his bother Gunnar. Sometimes he gets so mad at the old man, he screams at him. But always when he's on the tractor in the middle of the field with the motor running. Once he left a rake in th yard with the tines up, hoping his dad would step on it and brain himself"

It is, however, his intelligent observation and empathy underpinning his stories that draws us in. He sees and understands motivation, fears, hopes, dreams, jealousies, weariness - and a myriad or human drives. He exposes them with humour. He makes us identify with them because he is himself always an insider as well as somewhat outside.

Reading these episodes has been warming, amusing and good for the spirit.

[Lawrence Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liberal-Minded Contraband @ Fort Knox, during Basic Training? I love Garrison, and even followed his example by traveling to Scandinavia in 1986. But heck, I was learning to kill Commies, after all, and practiced shooting at the Red-Star pop-up targets on the firing range. Fearing it would be taken away from me and getting into trouble, I tossed this book into a barrel, just before beginning my (4) months of Cavalry Scout (19-Delta) training, just to be safe. It was still Reagan's U.S. Army. However, still was able to channel "subversive" liberal thoughts by quietly enjoying - in the dark of night in the dormatory I slept in - The Waterboy's Fisherman's Blues, New Order's Technique and PSB's Introspective, on my faux Walkman, underneath the scratchy green blankets, during my Cav-Scout training. :)

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up in the Midwest, and we´re always taught that there´s nothing special about us. We´re raised to be humble. As such, I didn´t really appreciate Keillor until I´d moved away.
The reason I first read this book was that I´d seen a dance performance based on one of the stories. Yep, a dance performance! It was so funny that I had to read the rest of the books, I haven´t stopped since, and it drew me to NPR. Moving to the East Coast, I discovered that yes, indeed there is something VERY special about the Midwest, something that you never truly appreciate until you´ve moved away. For those of you who have never lived there, and think it´s nothing special, give it a try.

[Vishvapani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Garrison Keillor. It's racy stuff and there are big changes in Lake Woebegone in this volume. Darlene leaves the Chatterbox Cafe and ... well, that's about it really. In fact I am considering moving to Minnesota, becoming Norwegian and joining to the Church of the Sanctified Brethren. However, I am not sure of the process of converting to being Norwegian.

The greatest compliment you could pay to Garrison Keillor is that he makes what he does seem so easy and effortless. Funny, charming, knowing, sad, insightful, and all done with such warm-hearted ease.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garrison Keiller's take on rural life is a refreshing blend of modern sensibility and nostalgia. He pits the denizens of Lake Wobegon against all the vagaries of life that keep us wondering who we really have on our side. Whether maintaining a livelihood, managing a household, leading a congregation, or nursing a relationship, the Lake Wobegon way of doing things always seems to be a makeshift way. His tales are bright with humor and warm with empathy.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garrison Keillor writes the way I *wish* I wrote. You see what is about to happen and it is all the funnier when it does happen. He is the master of the "why-didn't-I-see-this-coming" ending. Reading this one for a third time. This is my favourite book to give friends. I have probably given away seven or eight copies over the years.

[Lisa Rathbun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although we didn't have a TV when I was growing up, my parents did let us listen to a Prarie Home Companion. I loved listening to the Lake Woebegone stories, so I'm so glad to have them collected in a book where I can reread them and enjoy their humor and poignancy. My favorite of all time is "Truckstop."

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lake Wobegon is the place she the women are all strong, the men are good looking and the children are all above average. And in this small volume of short stories Kellior takes us back to this small town and the people who live there.

There are some entertaining stories in here, and other that are less good. But it is nicely written with some razor sharp wit.

[Timothy Rooney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit better than the first book. Having each story be a separate, short story made a continuous, connected plot unnecessary. Although Keillor's dry style can leave one waiting for the punchline--only to be just mildly amused, some of the stories near the end of the book did spark audible laughter from me.

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is fun to read out loud, in my best Garrison Keillor voice -- not really, but I do read it out loud to my daughter and she invariably falls asleep. But, I love it and it makes me laugh. I do wonder, though, if you'd have to have lived in the Midwest to get all of the humor?

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will always be a fan of Garrison's work. I laughed all the way through his pieces....as I became friends with the Lutherans and the Bachelor Farmers. I've shared his poems with many friends, I'm sad that he is no longer performing. I hope he continues to write

[Eugenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keillor is always so pleasant to read or hear. The stories are entertaining and funny with Keillor's own voice and subtle touches of philosophy or life lessons. I love the personalities in Lake Wobegon.