Kevin Kling Appearing at the Northfield Arts Guild
Well-known humorist, playwright and storyteller Kevin Kling will read from and sign copies of his new book, “Kevin Kling’s Holiday Inn,” at 7 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Northfield Arts Guild. The event, which is sponsored by the St. Olaf Bookstore, is free and the public is invited to attend. The Northfield Arts Guild is at 304 Division Street in downtown Northfield. The St. Olaf Bookstore is in Buntrock Commons on the St. Olaf College campus.
Kling’s first book, “The Dog Says How,” brought readers into his entertaining world of the comically skewed and the oddly mundane. “Kevin Kling’s Holiday Inn” is a romp through a year full of holidays and reflects a lifetime of gathering a rich collection of material. Stories in this collection are vintage Kevin Kling: a wiener dog with a capacity for destruction impresses the whole family and contributes to its album of favorite disastrous Christmas stories; a Choctaw and a nun go trick-or-treating on Halloween; a boy makes a frightening decision every year when he chooses which classmate gets the “Be Mine” Valentine; Kling takes his mother to a Fourth of July demolition derby; and he makes an epic trip around the bases at a ballgame on Memorial Day.
Says the Chicago Sun-Times: “Kling has an enviable gift for storytelling, a sense of humor rooted equally in pain and whimsy … and an uncanny ability to transform intensely personal memories, especially those of family life, into something instantly recognizable and, at the same time, strangely exalted.”
From tomfoolery with his brother in the backseat of their father’s car through his carefully considered instructions for ice fishing, in “Holiday Inn” Kling never loses the spirit of his story or holds back on its inherent hilarity. “Kevin Kling’s stories are not merely delightful,” says Krista Tippett, public radio host and author of “Speaking of Faith.” “They are surprising, wise and redemptive. He is one of our great national treasures.”
Kling, who lives in Minneapolis, is a regular commentator on public radio, and his plays and adaptations have been performed around the world.
Information: 507-786-3048 or www.stolafbookstore.com
