{"id":3694,"date":"2007-12-31T00:10:38","date_gmt":"2007-12-31T05:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2007\/12\/31\/riding-on-garrison-keillors-pontoon\/"},"modified":"2007-12-31T00:10:38","modified_gmt":"2007-12-31T05:10:38","slug":"riding-on-garrison-keillors-pontoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/12\/31\/riding-on-garrison-keillors-pontoon\/","title":{"rendered":"Riding on Garrison Keillor’s Pontoon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

My own definition of what counts as a \u201cnovel\u201d fluctuates. You might say I fudge. If it is a classic, like Homer\u2019s stuff, it\u2019s not fiction. If it is theological, it\u2019s theology. Otherwise, I don\u2019t read novels. Unless it\u2019s the hilarious humor of Garrison Keillor. I\u2019ve read all of his books I think, so when I saw Pontoon<\/a>\"\"<\/em>, I forked over the money and sat down recently and read the thing.
\nLet\u2019s hear from his fans and readers. Which of his books do you like most? Any critical response to his work, especially as it has developed since the early 80s.
\nWhat do I like most about his books? It\u2019s his ability to start with some odd fact and by the end of the long paragraph, sometimes a page later, we\u2019ve gotten to where one would never expect. It\u2019s like a parenthesis within a parenthesis within a few more and before long you\u2019re laughing and cackling and wondering how in the world he does it.
\nPontoon<\/em> combines the funeral of Evelyn Peterson \u2014 cremation with the ashes put in a bowling ball and then dropped from the sky (sort of) into Lake Wobegon by a young kid flying on a parasail but the driver gets all mixed up with some huge ducks on the lake and a pontoon full of Danish pastors who have become all but atheists \u2014 with a wedding, actually a commitment, that falls apart and now you\u2019ve got the making of all his nonsense.
\nWhat do I not like about Keillor? About the time he wrote WLT: A Radio Romance<\/em> Keillor included too much sex (he doesn\u2019t seem to have any Scandinavian reserve in this subject) and he\u2019s not let up since. This book has a few episodes that lacked taste.
\nMore seriously, in the last few books he\u2019s started juxtaposing sex and the Christian faith in ways that, at times, strike me as cheap and classless. Those scenes sadden me because there are better ways to expose the failure of the Christian faith.
\nHis capacity to spin a yarn, expose the weaknesses of humans, entertain, and carry us all forward a step or two \u2026 and his ability to write and his voice \u2026 well, I\u2019ll be in line the next time another Wobegon novel comes out.
\nHere\u2019s the Amazon link to Keillor \u2026 my favorite remains Lake Wobegon Days<\/a>\"\"<\/em>, but I\u2019ve read them all.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My own definition of what counts as a \u201cnovel\u201d fluctuates. You might say I fudge. If it is a classic, like Homer\u2019s stuff, it\u2019s not fiction. If it is theological, it\u2019s theology. Otherwise, I don\u2019t read novels. Unless it\u2019s the hilarious humor of Garrison Keillor. I\u2019ve read all of his books I think, so when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[476],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nRiding on Garrison Keillor's Pontoon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My own definition of what counts as a "novel" fluctuates. You might say I fudge. If it is a classic, like Homer's stuff, it's not fiction. 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