Pilgrims

September 15, 2009
Margie and Carl Krebsbach havent made love in a long time, and now Carls decamped from theirs into what used to be their eldests bedroom. Margie still loves Carl, but how does he feel? What to do? When she gets a call from an Italian woman claiming to be the previously unknown daughter of Lake Wobegons World War II hero August Gussie Norlander, she gets a glimmer. She organizes a trip to Rome to put Gussies picture on his tombstone on the strength of Gussies brothers promise that he, in no shape to do it himself, will give Margie what Mother Norlander left to cover such a pilgrimagea cool $150,000. Party of 12 for the Eternal City! Which includes the hometown success story, radio personality and author Gary E. Keillor, who, through an excited misstatement, promises to cover the same expenses, leaving the 150 thou for Margie. Once in Rome, complications ensue that ensure this will be an exceptionally memorable trip for Margie. Keillor re-justifies the comparisons to Mark Twain he has garnered over the years by not only making his usual comic poetry out of Minnesota idiom but also by injecting some ludicrous saints lives and papal history into the mix.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)