Liberty by Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor (Read by)

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Until now, people in Lake Wobegon thought of Clint Bunsen as the friendly neighbor who jump-starts their cars in freezing weather or the guy who works hard every year to put together the local Independence Day parade. Now, to the astonishment of his neighbors, he's become some kind of celebrity, or at least a celebrity in waiting. To local folk, Clint is a nice guy, but his plans to run for Congress seem plum loco; they know about his losing battles with vodka sours, his rocky marriage, and his embarrassing dalliances with the nubile young woman who plays the Statue of Liberty at the Fourth of July gala. (Some good townspeople even wonder if she's wearing anything under her Miss Liberty robe.) As this year's festivities approach, the national holiday seems to be taking on new meanings that old Tom Jefferson never dreamed of. Another delightful epic from Minnesota's favorite mythical community.

From the Publisher

Just in time for the Fourth of July, a firecracker of a Lake Wobegon novel from bestselling author and radio storyteller Garrison Keillor

Published to wide and enthusiastic acclaim, Liberty is Garrison Keillor's most ribald Lake Wobegon novel yet, set in a spectacular Fourth of July celebration amid marching bands and circus wagons drawn by teams of Percherons. The Chairman of the Fourth, Clint Bunsen, is in the midst of an identity crisis brought on by a DNA test just as he turns sixty, and he finds solace in the arms of Angelica Pflame, the young beauty who marched as Liberty in last year's parade. Should he remain in Lake Wobegon with his stoical wife Irene or fly to California with Angelica? Liberty is Keillor at his knowing, deadpan, raconteur best.

The Washington Post - Carolyn See

A legitimate question arises here: Why has the publisher released this goofy little novel in September, rather than June, in time for the Fourth of July? Because, perhaps, this is actually a story about the coarseness, vulgarity and naivete of the U.S. presidential elections. Keillor's genius lies in the fact that after you finish reading this, you don't despair. He makes a strong case for the innate decency of the ocarina players, pig-manure vendors and even an odious governor and would-be member of Congress as they sweatily pursue their political ambitions.

The New York Times - David Kirby

Like Mark Twain, Keillor takes time to spell out details and, in so doing, convert the base metal of small-town tedium to the gold of comedy…Storywise, Liberty doesn't dazzle, nor is it intended to. As in most leading-up-to-the-event novels, the action moves in just one direction (an author can do only so much with flashbacks), and convention requires that there be lots of complications but that things turn out O.K. in the end, which is what happens. Liberty excels at portraiture, not plot.

Publishers Weekly

Clint Bunsen of Keillor's Lake Wobegon is planning his sixth Fourth of July celebration, but by the time it rolls around he's been booted from the planning committee; his wife, Irene, is chillier than ever; and his 60-something hormones have him lusting after the much-younger Angelica Pflame, whose "commando" performance as the Statue of Liberty in last year's parade is still a hot topic in the sleepy burg. In other words, everything's as you'd expect in a Keillor novel. There are quite a few subplots bubbling along quietly until everything erupts in a madcap denouement that combines elements of the Keystone Kops, I Love Lucy and Monty Python. Keillor's pacing and command of smalltown plot is impeccable; just at the moment when Clint's obsession with a genealogical discovery has become unbearable, the rug gets pulled out from under him. It's a Keillor novel that does what Keillor novels do: entertain and color nicely within the lines. (Sept.)

Kirkus Reviews

One of the funnier Lake Wobegon novels might be the saddest as well. The farcical note on which the book opens gives no indication of the tragic undercurrent to come. In the latest from radio's A Prairie Home Companion tale-spinner Keillor (Pontoon, 2007, etc.), town mechanic Clint Bunsen has become too dictatorial in his role as chairman of Lake Wobegon's Fourth of July festivities, or so his hometown critics contend. Though his increasingly ambitious spectacles attracted the attention of CNN the previous year, some question the expense involved in luring attractions such as the Leaping Lutherans Parachute Team and the Fabulous Frisbee Dogs of Fergus Falls. "It is not easy trying to sell grandeur and pizzazz to a bunch of sour old pragmatists," grumbles Clint, particularly when so many citizens find their own roles in the celebration diminished. The very soul of Lake Wobegon is at stake, though the Minnesota hamlet is no longer a refuge from the outside world. Depression increasingly dissolves into a pharmaceutical haze, and teenage girls now dress like junior trollops. Ousted from his chairmanship, Clint takes stock of his life, discovering in the process that he made a huge mistake coming back to Minnesota from California after his discharge from the Army, and that his marriage to his hometown sweetheart was more from obligation than love, "[a]s if he were in a play written by someone who didn't like him." He finds the road not taken through the Internet, where he connects with a clairvoyant (who may also be a stripper) some 35 years younger than he. Their improbable affair throws Clint's life, his marriage and his hometown into turmoil, culminating in his last holiday as chairman. Itwould be easier to laugh if the novel didn't invest Clint with such pathos and his wife with such devotion. On the Fourth of July, will Clint choose liberty or responsibility?"Living in Lake Wobegon was like being stuck in a bad marriage," thinks Clint, leaving the rest of the novel to resolve whether the Bunsens' marriage is worse than most.

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