First published 2008
Clint Bunsen has transformed Lake Wobegon's Fourth of July parade from a modest procession of pickup trucks and cat carriages into a spectacular celebration. Marching bands fill the streets. Cannons boom. The Living Flag draws one thousand residents in patriotic colors. CNN cameras roll. The governor attends. Clint serves as church treasurer and fixes cars on frozen mornings. He makes the parade work through sheer determination. Then Clint announces his congressional campaign. The townspeople cringe. They remember his drinking problems and troubled marriage too clearly. They whisper about his relationship with the young woman who portrays Lady Liberty in the parade. Rumors spread that she wears nothing beneath her costume and carries liquor in her torch. Lake Wobegon residents love each other deeply but know each other's flaws just as well. They watch Clint reach for something beyond their small town while carrying all his human imperfections with him.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Lake Wobegon
Period: Contemporary
288 pages · Hardcover · Viking Books
Content warnings: alcohol-abuse