Based on
Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon monologues,
Life among the Lutherans is a collection of stories about the struggles of ordinary people in an imperfect world, the life and work of the pastor who leads them, and the church to whose high standards they aspire in the small town they call home.
The stories in Life among the Lutherans reflect everything Keillor fans have come to expect of this master storyteller. Some are familiar, including the quintessentially Lutheran "95 Theses" from Lake Wobegon Days, others are new. Laugh out loud about the church directory filled with photos that are just plain awful. Share the moment when Pastor Ingqvist receives a leather-bound copy of his sermons. Keillor's command of every little detail of life in Lake Wobegon is bound to entertain, surprise, and make readers - even those who aren't Lutheran - feel right at home in the mythical community where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."
"Here in the Midwest, we all have long memories of suffering and pain, because, for one thing, winter is so long, and when finally it gets warm and beautiful as it is now, finally—the last ice went out last week—we try to relieve these painful memories of cold, of neglect, of suspicion, darkness, anger, bologna sandwiches, stupidity, butterscotch pudding—we try to heal ourselves by subjecting ourselves to intensely pleasurable experiences—mindless pleasure in the sun while wearing as few clothes as possible—sand, air, water, sun, grass, gin—but we were not brought up to experience pleasure. It doesn't register on us. It's like trying to write on glass with a pencil. We get into as few clothes as possible and the sight of ourselves depresses us. Sunlight makes us gloomy. We are not Mediterranean people. We're Lutheran people. Even the Catholics up here are Lutheran. And I don't like to generalize about Lutherans, but one thing that's true of every single last one of them without a single exception is that the low point of their year is their summer vacation."
—Garrison Keillor
Life Among the Lutherans
