Garrison Keillor. A Christmas Blizzard. Penguin, 2011.

We were big fans of Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion show and even once saw him live. His writing is sensitive, intelligent, and funny. His piece entitled “Aprille” found in his collection Going Home is one of the best pieces of literary criticism ever written on The Canterbury Tales. His writing is usually entertaining. Yes, it may be satirical, but always in a kind way.

A Christmas Blizzard is fun. The plot is fairly light, but we do not usually read or listen to Keillor strictly for the plot. Basically, James Sparrow of Minneapolis flies to his hometown Looseleaf, North Dakota, because he gets word that his favorite uncle, eighty-six year old Uncle Earl, is dying. Much of the family will be there for the Christmas holiday anyhow, so he decides to go there instead of flying to Hawaii. He would rather be in warm Hawaii at the Kuhikuhikapapa’u’maumau resort. (Note the last syllables: Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow.) But he loves his uncle, though he is less enthusiastic about many of his other relatives.

While he is not exactly a Scrooge—he is a loving husband and generous giver—he really does not like Christmas. Yes, some of the endlessly repeated songs drive him crazy, but it is more than that. He is Christougenniatikophobic. He is afraid of Christmas. A Christmas Blizzard, then, describes a series of supernatural (or perhaps magically realistic) events to deliver him of this fear.

Flashbacks to his early childhood tell us that his family life was not that great, and, finally, when he was seven, his father left home for good. But one thing that was ingrained into him even from five years old was that he should never put his tongue on a frozen pump handle! Such a fear became magnified in his young mind, and he never overcame it but associated such a temptation with Christmastime. Somewhere warm like Hawaii sounded nice to him.

No sooner does he arrive in Looseleaf but a blizzard arrives and everyone gets snowed in. He decides it would be nice and less complicated if he camped out at the fish house of a late cousin on Lake Winniesissibigosh (We’re no sissies, by gosh?). For the uninitiated, a fish house is a small cabin placed on a frozen lake or pond for ice fishing. This one has cots, a wood stove, and extra clothing and bedding, so he can comfortably spend the night there.

There are some vague parallels to A Christmas Carol. When he first steps outside the fish hut he meets a talking wolf. The wolf is a reincarnated high school buddy named Ralph, who drowned in the lake. From there it seems each time he enters or exits the fish house he is somewhere else—maybe in the past, maybe in the present, with relatives and other inhabitants of Looseleaf. In the daylight (IRL?) he visits with Uncle Earl and other relatives.

Keillor is known for his characters and caricatures like detective Guy Noir or the many and varied inhabitants of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. A Christmas Blizzard is filled with such people, and that is what makes it fun to read. We hear stories about James’s wife Joyce and especially his wise Uncle Earl. We can see why Earl would be a favorite.

At the same time each character has one or two stories to tell. Cousin Liz belongs to a radical Republican militia who is convinced Communists are infiltrating the country from Canada. Her husband Leo whispers to James that he is an undercover FBI agent investigating militias. Cousin Faye is a new age type who welcomes him by saying:

We are family. We are interconnected whether we know it or not. We nurture each other with our common myths and rituals, and in each other we find wholeness and wisdom. (115)

When she tells some relatives she is Ojibway, they remind her that their ancestors came from England.

There are many digressions and entertaining side stories, which is what Keillor is known for. Yes, eventually it does appear that James begins to enjoy Christmas a he reunites with his family and faces his fears. Like the ending to many of Keillor’s stories from Lake Wobegon, there is a kind of union or communion as some of the various people in the story come together for a Christmas party.

For any readers who saw the A Prairie Home Companion film, the climax is similar. In the film, most of the people are on stage singing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” There is a little epilogue afterwards. Ditto with A Christmas Blizzard. Of course, they are singing Christmas carols instead, but you get the idea. It is delightful and tender.