Imagine the collision of a funeral ceremony involving a crematory ash-filled bowling ball being dropped into a lake by a nude parasailer; a non-traditional wedding with enormous fiberglass ducks, a flaming hot air balloon, and a singing Elvis falling from the sky; and a sinking boat full of drunk Danish pastors.
Imagine all this (taking place in the devoutly Lutheran community of Lake Wobegon), and you will have an idea of Garrison Keillor’s “Pontoon,” a fabulous tale of loss, love and utter absurdity that will leave you in stitches.
Keillor is most well known for “A Prairie Home Companion,” his radio show on NPR, begun in 1974, which features his news reports from the imaginary town of Lake Wobegon. “Pontoon” encapsulates the brilliance, hilarity and quirkiness of Keillor’s anecdotes.
Though Keillor admits that much of the novel has been told before, there is plenty fresh storytelling to be had.
The novel traces the lives of several characters in Lake Wobegon following the death of Evelyn Peterson, an outrageous and life-loving woman who shakes the small town to its core (both in life and death) when her scandalous secrets are revealed.
After she is found dead in her bedroom, her semi-alcoholic daughter and sexually-confused grandson discover Evelyn’s secret love affair with a man they never met and must fight against the reservations of the town to carry out her last wishes: to be cremated, encased in the bowling ball her lover gave her and dropping into the lake.
Admittedly, some of the novel rings faintly of “The Notebook” with the sentimental story of lovers forced apart by the cruelty of the world and the dramatic discovery of that love in one’s last years. At times, Keillor seems to have difficulty narrating anything seriously emotional without sounding a bit cheesy, particularly with dialogue.
However, these moments are easily forgivable in light of Keillor’s remarkable witticism and delightfully original plotlines.
In “Pontoon,” Keillor proves once again that you don’t have to sacrifice intelligence in order to be hilarious. Whether or not you are familiar with his work, you will be very entertained by this book.
