Pontoon

Last week it was my turn to review the book at my book club. I offered four books and they choose Pontoon by Garrison Keillor. I thought it would be an easy book to review. The media has tons of information about the author and it's a light hearted book. Truth is, it was a hard book to review. Yes, reviewing the author was easy but this book has no discussion questions. Many books have discussion questions in the back but not this one. I even went to the Penguin Publishing website - no questions. I brought a couple other of his books to pass around. That was helpful to a point. When I passed around his book entitled, "The Pretty Good Joke Book," my usually decorous book group got wild. I read a couple jokes to start them off - my mistake there. I like the "Your Momma" jokes. I am a momma and I have a momma but I find these jokes hilarious. "Your Momma is so skinny her eyes are single file." "Your momma is so fat that when she got lost, her picture took up all four sides of the milk carton." "Your Momma is so dumb that when she saw the sign that said AIRPORT LEFT she turned around and went home." Various people in the group just had to read their favorite jokes aloud. These people were laughing so hard tears were flowing from their eyes. I had made up some thought provoking discussion questions but it was about impossible to keep these people on track. Lucky for me I have years of experience as a substitute teacher and a Girl Scout Leader. I know rowdy crowds. I can handle rowdy crowds. Not everyone liked the book. Not everyone likes Garrison Keillor. He can be very insulting in his descriptions. He goes too far - that is part of what makes him funny. But they all seemed to enjoy discussion the book. Not all of Pontoon was funny. There were some very sad and depressing issues in there amidst the comedy. This book club has been around for 30 some years and I was told we've never had such a uproarious and lively discussion before.