Leaving Home - a review

 

Leaving Home by Garrison Keillor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Leaving Home, a Review
Life among the Lutherans, a review

I love Garrison Keillor. He has a real knack for telling a good story, and subtly weaving in ideas. He can make you think about something deep, just by listening to what you thought was plain tale about down-home people or everyday events. Basically he can be a little preachy without it usually coming off as such.

This can be good or bad, depending on the message. For Keillor it’s a bit of both. Sometimes he’s showing the importance of a small town, and how good it is to be known by those who live around you – something we’ve mostly lost today. But other times, he treats marital affairs and the breakup of families casually, making them feel okay. As long as you can detect and reject the latter, it’s good, lighthearted fun, along the lines of Wodehouse.

This also applies to the church and pastors in the town. They’re shown as a natural and good part of life. As he writes sermons and counsels people, the pastor has his own thoughts and motivations, sometimes aligned with the faith, and other times not. It was easy to recognize myself there. The rivalry between the Catholic and Lutheran church is hilariously caricatured.

But Keillor either doesn’t understand or deliberately misrepresents the faith at many points. Being gracious, he’s trying to explain how and why people of faith fail to live out their beliefs well. But now and then, I noted a darker tone of bitterness against the church. Guilt trips of “perpetual responsibility.” The hypocrisy of insisting on presenting one thing publicly when you live a different way privately.

And salvation was mostly found in the sentiment of fondness for the people in your town, not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Keillor’s is the faith of Fosdick, Peale, and Schuller, not of Luther.

Still, the social critiques are sometimes justified, and can help church people be self-reflective about their own flaws, without a harsh word given.

So, you’ll find entertaining stories here, which I recommend to the discerning reader. But stay alert to the messages lying beneath.

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