Pilgrims: A Novel of Lake Wobegon

by Garrison Keillor (Author), Dermot Flynn (Cover Design)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2009

  $4.40

  Margie Krebsbach dreams up the idea of a trip to Rome, hoping to get her husband Carl to make love to her - he's been sleeping across the hall and she has no idea why. She finds a patriotic purpose for the journey. A Lake Wobegon boy, Gussy Norlander, died in the liberation of Rome, 1944, and his grave, according to his elderly brother, Norbert, is in a neglected weed patch near the Colosseum. So it's decided they will go to clean Gussy's final resting place. But Margie is unprepared for the enthusiastic response - fifty people want to go with her, including her nemesis, the mayor of Lake Wobegon, Carl's bossy sister, Eloise, Mr. Berge the town drunk, and her treacherous mother-in-law. Margie fends off some of the would-be travellers, but ten applicants remain, though Carl is not sure he wants to go after all. At this, a heartbroken Margie gets the motley crew to the airport and aboard the plane, and then discovers one of the secret pleasures of travel - as they enter alien territory, safely away from Lake Wobegon, they tell each other stories of astonishing frankness and self-revelation.

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $3.29

  Garrison Keillor returns to the little town we love and continues to chronicle the lives of our favorite folks. Margie Krebsbach hopes that a trip to Rome will inspire her husband Carl to make love to her. He's been sleeping across the hall and she has no idea why. That's her real reason for the trip, but she finds a patriotic purpose as well: a Lake Wobegon boy died in the liberation of the city in 1944, and his grave is in a neglected weed patch near the Coliseum. So it's decided they will go to clean Gussy Norlander's final resting place. What begins as a trip for two turns into a modern-day Canterbury Tales as more Wobegonians decide to go alone - including Margie's nemesis, the mayor, Carl's bossy sister Eloise; her treacherous mother-in-law; and Mr. Berge, the town drunk. She gets the motley crew to the airport and aboard the plane, then discovers one of the secret pleasures of travel: away from home, the pilgrims share stories of astonishing frankness and self-revelation.