"Gone But Not Forgotten..."

"Evelyn was an insomniac so when they say she died in her sleep, you have to question that." Thus begins the latest Garrison Keillor novel, Pontoon.

I have long been a fan of Mr. Garrison, he being the host of the weekly PBS radio program A Prairie Home Companion, and the author of a series of comedic novels based on the inhabitants of a fictional Minnesota town, Lake Wobegon. My appreciation of Mr. Garrison's writing talents began when at a neighborhood yard sale I picked up for twenty-five cents a worn copy of his first Lake Wobegon novel by the same name. It has continued to be one of my favorite reads for years, and I wait with great anticipation to purchase his latest publication as soon as it is released.

Pontoon is an entertaining and quick read that centers around the latter life of the now departed 83 year old octogenarian, Evelyn, the members of her dysfunctional family, and the town folk who interacted with this lady of quirky exuberance. Evelyn Frances Powell did not begin to come into her own until Jack, her husband of forty-four years, passed away, having lived his life in quiet desperation, believing that the heavens had conspired against him to fail at everything he attempted, which, judging by the few people who could tolerate him, was little. Barbara, her over-weight and over-bearing, melancholy daughter, having discovered the body of her Mother, begins to realize that her Mother led a secret and very happy life, one filled with adventures and an unrequited love affair with Raoul, a man Evelyn had meet years earlier. At first these startling and disturbing discoveries began slowly to awaken Barbara to the truly unique person her Mother was and provided the daughter with the evolving impetuous to begin to transform her own life into a like mold.

The pages and chapters turn quickly as the reader follows with voyeuristic interest the progressing stages of the varying reactions to Evelyn's death to fulfilling her last wishes on the manner that she wished to have her remains disposed, which specifically instructed that she be cremated, a blowing ball as the vessel to be employed for her ashes, and a private celebration on the shores of Lake Wobegon prior to her being plunked into the lake's chilly waters. Wherein the namesake of the book Pontoon comes into play, I'll leave that to be humorously discovered by those who choose to read the book.

An excerpt from the chapter of Pontoon... "Evelyn was a whistler, she learned it from him (her Father). The rest of the family was disposed to gloom, dark Lutherans who pitch down the rocky slop of melancholy and lie there for days, sighing, moaning, waiting for someone, usually Evelyn, to rope them in and haul them back up and comfort them with dessert. A people waiting for the other shoe to drop. Phlegmatists. Stoics. Good eaters who went for recipes that start out 'Brown a pound of ground beef and six strips of bacon and in a separate pan melt a pound of butter.'" These well written words are just a select few among the many other gems that Mr. Keillor weaves into this well written folk tale that will leave you most assuredly laughing, occasionally shedding a tear, and most certainly appreciating a story that reflects many of the foibles that comprise the human condition. For an enjoyable summer read, I recommend it highly.