Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Garrison Keillor
- First Published: 2001
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: 1950’s, Maturation or coming of age, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Adolescence, Teenagers, Sex or sexuality, Twentieth century, Midwest, Christianity, Small-town life, Holidays, Minnesota, Protestantism or Protestant churches, Summer, Seasons
- Locales: Lake Wobegon, MN
Like Wobegon Boy, this novel is written in the first person. The first two-thirds of the narrative are told in the present, a highly unusual tense for long fiction. In chapter 18, “In the Press Box,” the narrative switches to past tense—for no apparent reason other than stylistic experimentation—and continues in that tense until the end of the novel. The narrator is Gary, Keillor's birthname. Gary is fourteen in 1956, as was Keillor, and Gary dreams of becoming a writer, as Keillor did. It is, at first, difficult to avoid reading the novel as slightly disguised...
[The entire page is 691 words long]
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