GARRISON KEILLOR is the author of “Boom Town,” also about the fictional town of Lake Wobegon (Wikipedia).

By Jim Tortolano/Orange County Tribune

Since his gentle 1985 best-seller “Lake Wobegon,” author Garrison Keillor has been able to weave a vast tapestry of sly fiction about a fictional town in Minnesota where “all the women are strong, all the men handsome and all the children are above average.”

Part of the charm of these books is that the town changes little from year to year and decade to decade, offering a journey of literary archaeology. Origins are explained, customs established and maintained, and the community’s culture progresses at a gentle trot, not the gallop that seems to be happening to the rest of the world.

But what happens if everything starts to change? What if thc Chatterbox Cafe is reeling from trendy competition? What if Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery is being shouldered aside by Whole Foods?

BOOM TOWN

In “Boom Town,” the trends and tastes of Generation Z have finally touched down in rural Minnesota like Paul Bunyan’s boots. Clever, trendy entrepreneurs are marketing artisanal firewood and the miraculous curative properties of certain organically-grown tomatoes and – via the Internet – are making millions and transforming this timeless little town.

Without giving away the punchline, let’s just say that Garrison uses this latest creation as a way to pour gentle – and sometimes not so gentle – ridicule on fad diets, trendy faiths and numbskull politics. It’s all cleverly interwoven with a sobering but life-affirming account of the search for true love, and the inevitability of death.

Just when you thought there were no more gems to mine from the lake-lands of the upper Midwest comes this book, timely and pointed without anger or angst.

“Boom Town”  by Garrison Keillor is published by Prairie Home Publications, is available in hardcover, Kindle and other formats.