Each character had its own eccentricities. This year I had flights booked from London to Belfast on that day too, to spend Christmas with the family I've not seen since March. asked the woman in the window seat next to me. Welcome back. Or maybe, just maybe, this book was just a wee bit boring. And weird in a way I just couldn't get down with. Comforting, funny, left me feeling soothed, like I was laying on the couch in my childhood home listening to PHC, although this was darker than his usual fare. I had a hard time getting through this one. To be sure, the opinions are usually quite mixed but generally friendly. "Are you okay?" Definitely not the best Keillor. A short comic novel about a Hawaii-bound holiday traveler who ends up stranded in his North Dakota hometown during a blizzard.A wealthy and depressed man (thanks to the economy he's not quite rich enough to expand his cache of paintings by Vincent Van Guy, the famed Dutch realist) bound for Christmas in the tropics is abruptly summoned home to North Dakota to visit … Join us on a 12-month journey to see them all, I was stolen from, beaten up and swindled -- it was the best trip ever, Mavis Johnston and the 1950s travel revolution that shrank the world. I finally finagled a patchwork itinerary that would get me home. Refresh and try again. Since there were no flights from New York City to London, I got a seat on a flight from Albany to Detroit on December 22, then another on a red-eye flight to London. Susan Lee was a realtor from Brooklyn, on her way to her mother's for the holidays, and as we talked, I began to relax and accept my situation. Will I find myself able to pay keen interest. She was fresh-faced and smiling, and it was hard to believe that more than ten years had passed since that fateful trip. The powerful winter storm of 1978 was a severe blizzard. Susan took the wheel and the three of us made the 12-mile dash to the airport, the Lees' plan for the morning put to one side. Realizing that I was on a pointless journey upstate to Albany, a place I'd never even heard of till 24 hours earlier, and that I wouldn't be home with family by December 25, I gave in and began to weep. I jumped out of the car, raced through the airport and made it onto the first of three flights. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Available from major retailers or BUY FROM AMAZON. Get it by Thu, Aug 6 - Fri, Aug 7 from Toledo, Ohio • Good condition • 60 day returns - Free returns; A short comic novel about a Hawaii-bound holiday traveler who ends up stranded in his North Dakota hometown during a blizzard. What could have been a touching and funny Christmas reclamation story takes a bizarre, unexplained turn toward the end that undoes the whole experience. It's a reminder to treasure the moments we have. The book overall didn't knock my socks off, but it was an interesting, fun read and had great dialogue that made me laugh out loud several times throughout the book. This book is as kooky and fun--mixing the familiar with the absurd, which are not always so different--as one of Keillor's stories about Lake Wobegon. The electricity goes out, and when it does, figures from his childhood appear, and historical figures too, for a festive candlelit holiday. However, his humour and vivid depiction of smalltown life still make it well worth reading. I'm sure I missed a lot of. Definitely a fun, light read around Christmastime! The inimitable Garrison Keillor spins "a Christmas tale that makes Dickens seem unimaginative by comparison" (Charlotte Creative Loafing) Snow is falling all across the Midwest as James Sparrow, a country- bumpkin-turned-energy-drink-tycoon, and his wife awaken in their sky- rise apartment overlooking Chicago. A wealthy and depressed man (thanks to the economy he’s not quite rich enough to expand his cache of paintings by Vincent Van Guy, the famed Dutch realist) bound for Christmas in the tropics is abruptly summoned home to North Dakota to visit … Which is part of the reason I decided to read this. A severe blizzard is characterized by wind speeds of 45 mph or higher accompanied by a great density of falling and/or blowing snow that frequently reduces visibilities to near zero, along with temperatures generally 10 degrees or lower. I cannot believe I actually finished this book. Her father was a dental technician, and "he wanted to live the American dream. I remember my father saying, years ago, that Garrison Keillor could read the phone book and it would be worth listening to.