Pilgrims

Lake Wobegon goes to Italy in Garrison Keillor's latest

Twelve Wobegonians fly to Rome to decorate a war hero's grave, led by Marjorie Krebsbach, with radio host Gary Keillor along for the ride. The pilgrimage is inspired by a phone call from an Italian woman seeking her Lake Wobegon roots and by a memoir O Paradiso by a farm wife who found the secret of life and love in Italy. And by marjorie's longing to win back the love of her husband Carl. Far from home, sitting in the rain in the Piazza Navona, the pilgrims talks about themselves, as they never could do in the Chatterbox Café.

"You're not going to write about this, I hope," says Irene Bunsen. "Of course I am. I invented this town," says Mr. Keillor. "Oh my, aren't you something," she replies.

All Margie Kresbach wants to do is get her husband Carl to Rome, thinking a romantic locale (and the fact that he won’t then be able to sleep across the hall, like at home) will rekindle their relationship.

Instead she finds herself in the unwanted role of tour organizer to a motley crew of Wobegonians who believe they are on a pilgrimage to tend the gravesite of a Lake Wobegon son, fallen during WWII and buried, purportedly, near the Coliseum.

But she and they unexpectedly find that distance from Lake Wobegon quickens their sense of community and awakens their memories. Soon they find themselves sharing stories of astonishing frankness and self-revelation.

The Washington Post - Steve Amick

In Garrison Keillor's laugh-filled umpteenth novel…the Wobegonians travel abroad for the first time. And they negotiate the streets of Rome and their feelings the same way they do back home—by telling stories about other Wobegonians…Once the chuckles subside, [Keillor] leaves us with an engaging, moving look at the true, daily heroics: people struggling to go ahead and love those they've thrown in with, or—short of that—at least overcome the urge to give them a good choking.

First with his performances on Minnesota Public Radio's Prairie Home Companion and later in his books, Garrison Keillor has become a symbol of the small-town Midwest -- its absurdities, its stoutness, and its warmth. His popular, funny stories set in Lake Wobegon manage to evoke nostalgia for a town that never existed.