Liberty

August 18, 2008
Clint Bunsen of Keillor's Lake Wobegon is planning his sixth Fourth of July celebration, but by the time it rolls around he's been booted from the planning committee; his wife, Irene, is chillier than ever; and his 60-something hormones have him lusting after the much-younger Angelica Pflame, whose “commando” performance as the Statue of Liberty in last year's parade is still a hot topic in the sleepy burg. In other words, everything's as you'd expect in a Keillor novel. There are quite a few subplots bubbling along quietly until everything erupts in a madcap denouement that combines elements of the Keystone Kops, I Love Lucy
and Monty Python. Keillor's pacing and command of smalltown plot is impeccable; just at the moment when Clint's obsession with a genealogical discovery has become unbearable, the rug gets pulled out from under him. It's a Keillor novel that does what Keillor novels do: entertain and color nicely within the lines.

August 1, 2008
Clint Bunsen just turned 60, which, after 37 years married to his childhood sweetheart, turns out to be a dangerous age. Hes regretting having come back home from California, where he was set to go to art school after a hitch in the navy, those many long years ago. It was supposed to be a farewell visit, but Irene enticed him to a cabin, and in those days (1970s!) in central Minnesota, conjugal relations mandated marriage. Furthermore, Clint has used the Internet to contact last years Miss Liberty in Lake Wobegons annual Fourth of July parade, and one thing led to another to a motel night of ecstasy, and now, damned if he doesnt want to take her up on fleeing to San Francisco with her, especially since Viola Tors bushwhacked him out of chairmanship of the parade committee, the only thing about Lake Wobegon he still enjoyed. Of course, wanting is simple, and doing isnt. Liberty has much the same shape, that of a pell-mell rush to a pyrotechnical climax (this years parade), as the last Lake Wobegon chronicle, Pontoon (2007), which was so memorably wacky and affecting that its hard to believe the new one follows it by a full year. We should be grateful, though, since Libertys almost as funny and definitely as moving.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)