Pontoon

A Novel of Lake Wobegon

By: Garrison Keillor

Narrated by: Garrison Keillor

Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Garrison Keillor's latest book is about the wedding of a girl named Dede Ingebretson, who comes home from California with a guy named Brent. Dede has made a fortune in veterinary aromatherapy; Brent bears a strong resemblance to a man wanted for extortion who's pictured on a poster in the town's post office. Then there's the memorial service for Dede's aunt Evelyn, who led a footloose and adventurous life after the death of her husband 17 years previously. Add a surprise boyfriend and a band of newly arrived Mormon missionaries, and the gently rendered chaos is complete.

©2007 Garrison Keillor (P)2007 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Winner, Narration by the Author or Authors, 2008

"There's plenty of fun to be had with the well-timed deadpans and homespun wit." (Publishers Weekly)

Funny and sad

I laughed so hard that I almost Peed my pants. But then I cried at the sad love story. Garrison still has it.

What a spectacular storyteller!<br />

Always love a good Lake Wobegon story 93rd by the master! kept me listening and smiling!

Great Wobegon Story!

For those who know the town, the additional characters fit right in. With outrageous back stories and equally extravagant experiences, told by one of the best storytellers, the book is well worth listening to. I highly recommend it.

Garrison Keller a spellbinding storyteller

the pontoon excursion unfolded in a series of unimaginable, unfathomable, catastrophes in magnifisent detail ! !

Speedy Read

As always lake wobegon delivers the twisted humor of my favorite norseman Garrison Keillor. 👏 👏 👏

Laugh out loud funny!

Keillor takes us on a wild and hilarious ride with characters who feel like people from my own home town. I smiled through the whole thing and laughed so hard I cried at the crazy and joyous end! At turns amusing and sweetly sad, this book left me feeling like I had just spent time with an old friend who had caught me up on the "goings on" back home. I can only hope someone picks up the movie rights - I'd love to see this on the big screen!

Bring on the flying Elvis

As mentioned by some other reviews, the “publisher’s summary” written above is highly inaccurate.

This story revolves around a funeral, a wedding, and the idea of living life to its fullest; a story full of “a bowling ball-urn, a hot-air balloon, giant duck decoys, a flying Elvis, and, most importantly, Wally's pontoon boat. As the wedding of the decade approaches (accompanied by wheels of imported cheese and giant shrimp shish kebabs), the good-loving people of Lake Wobegon do what they do best: drive each other slightly crazy.” The Whippets still play baseball; the Chatterbox Café and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery is still open; the awful Magendanz family is still awful; and the local police still don’t have much use for their new antiterrorism equipment.

This was my first book by Keillor, and since it seems that everyone says that this wasn’t his best work, I can only imagine how great his other books must be. When I first started listening, the monotone of Keillor voice bothered me but it really grew on me over time because it became obvious that it was the perfect voice for this story. I really enjoyed this bizarre tale and the ending is awesome.

A delight to listen to

Garrison Keillor's narration style is initially disconcerting, but soon become so much part of the whole experience that it's hard to imagine the story being narrated by anyone else. Pontoon is full of wonderfully fanciful characters becoming involved in increasingly bizarre situations. Yet there is so much truth in the characters and the vignettes Keillor relates that he must go about every day with a pen and notebook, recording his observations of real people. A lovely, warm, gentle listen that I will revisit in the future.

Genius! PURE Genius!

As an avid fan of PHC, I was pleasantly surprised by the authenticity of the characters and story, here. Because PHC is a radio show, it is MUCH more "vanilla" than this book, and I found this surprise quite delicious. I LOVE how Keillor's mind works and keeps the web of characters and relationships so real. I LOVE his "deadpan" delivery (that's vintage Keillor--love it or hate it) and think NO ONE could have read it better than the author, himself. Just AWESOME!!!

A Prairie Home Cast of Characters

Pontoon starts with the sudden but apparently peaceful death of an elderly Lake Wobegon woman, proceeds into the wedding plans of a young woman coming back to Lake Wobegon after leaving for a prosperous (and preposterous) career in L.A., and ends with the events on Lake Wobegon that transpire when the memorial service and wedding party take place simultaneously.

That's not much of a plot, but it doesn't have to be. What Garrison Keillor has done so well for so long in the seemingly innocuous midwest small-town setting of Lake Wobegon, in print and on radio, is to create a charming cast of characters who live ordinary lives that take small but extraordinary turns.

Pontoon is no exception -- Evelyn's recent death and Debbie's upcoming nuptials are bookend life events that provide the starting point for Keillor to fill his folk art canvas with an array of characters that capture the imagination in the simplest and humblest of ways. It is not laugh out loud funny, dealing so prominently with the subject of death, but it is unfailingly charming.

Keillor never refers to himself in any way, and he has created a spectrum of characters that are never less than engaging, but ultimately the most important and dominant character is the author himself. He has been doing this for decades, and his patented formula relies so heavily on his soothing voice and his total command of his subject matter -- his setting and the people who fill it. It is not necessary to know about Keillor and his rich histories of Lake Wobegon to enjoy Pontoon, but those who know him in advance have an edge, because as narrator he really does become a major character.

It's always a treat when an author reads his own work, but in this case, it is even more than that, Keillor having perfected his narrative voice on his longtime radio show. I suppose one could argue that fans of the show know his voice so well that they could read the print version with that sound in their imagination, but there is no need to imagine it when Keillor himself reads his own audiobook.