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Summary: my review
Review: This book is a pot pourri of stories about people who live in a little town in western Massachusetts, called Northampton.However well the author writes this book, it is very hard to get involved if there is no real story that holds the book together. I found it very hard to be able to follow everybody's comings and goings if there is no real central story and no central character. Of course the policeman, Tommy O'Connor if interesting, but there is absolutely no relation to Laura (the single mother) or to Alan, or even to his friend Rick because Tommy "does not want to be involved". The writing is very good, and the descriptions of characters and places are also very good, but without a real plot to the book, it just feels as if you are reading a newspaper story.
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Summary: another kidder gem
Review: Tracy Kidder is the best non-fiction writer in America since John McPhee went off the deep end and became fixated on rocks. Kidder takes seemingly small subjects, in this case a nice little town in Massachusetts that works pretty well for most of the people who live there, and manages to tell us a great deal about a great many things: cops, friends, yearning for family, homelessness, a single woman's dreams and even obsessive-compulsive disorder. The writing seems effortless but only because the book is so well crafted. This is one of those books where you feel you have more life inside you simply for having read it. He manages to bring real people to life in a way that makes us truly care about what happens to them. A less talented writer might tell his or her publisher I want to spend a year watching what happens in a small town and the publisher might say forget about it. In Kidder's hands it works beautifully, as we've come to expect. I loved this book.
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Summary: Home Town Nostalgia
Review: I got such a kick out of this book! Unfortunately, I have a feeling it's probably because I'm from Northampton, having grown up there around the same time as Tom O'Connor. For me, at least, it captures perfectly what it was to grow up in Northampton in the '70's. I haven't lived in Northampton in years, but visit family there quite frequently and believe that Kidder also captures how Northampton has changed over the years. For me, reading Home Town is like going back in time and, literally, going home.
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Summary: A fascinating look at small town life
Review: HOME TOWN by Tracy Kidder is a highly entertaining and compelling book where truth is indeed, stranger than fiction, and certainly more entertaining. Kidder writes about the sleepy town of Northampton, Massachusetts, a town that at first glance seems like any other typical small town. Its inhabitants are anything but. There's the local judge who sentences his neighbors, the millionaire with a devastating disorder, a single mother struggling to begin a new life who enrolls at Smith College, a likeable crack addict who works as a police informant, a cop who is accused of a terrible crime and vilified by the town, and holding it all together is life-long resident and detective, Tommy O'Connor, Northampton's paen to small town family life, and its moral glue. HOME TOWN examines what it's like to grow up and live your whole life in the same town and the trepditation that goes with leaving it, about wanting more than what life has to offer, and about loyalty and virtue. Although this is a work of nonfiction, it reads like a novel and is an extremely engaging story and an excellent book.
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Summary: Good stuff!
Review: An entertaining, insightful read. Probably more so for me than for some since I've lived in Northampton for many years. I have to laugh when I read the reviews complaining that they didn't like the book because Northampton is not a "typical" small town. So what? Kidder never claims Northampton is typical. If it was typical, it might not make such an interesting read. Kidder does a great job portraying the real Northampton, a place that adds up to something that transcends the sum of its parts. The beauty of Northampton is the liberal/conservative new/old tension that somehow works despite the many differences between residents. It is not a boring place to live at all and Kidder does a good job capturing the tension and rewards of living here. Perhaps out of necessity due to his choice of following disparate people from different segments of the population, the plot is somewhat disjointed and does not wrap up "neatly". But this is non-fiction, not fiction and real life is rarely neat.
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Summary: Kidder Doesn't Kid
Review: I really loved this book. It is introversion and extroversion at its height. The comparison of people in just this one town is incredible, but even more so the fact that the reader walks away wanting to know what happened to each and every character. I literally was going to take a road trip to Northampton to meet some of the main characters of this novel, but I didn't want to creep them out. At points the story line is a little slow, but usually this is because Kidder is focusing on one character and the reader just wants to know what is happening with his or her favorite character. I would recommend this book to anyone that has ever visited, lived, or wants to live in a town in New England.
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Summary: A Many New England Town
Review: I suspect that this is the story of not only a N. England town, but about many small towns in America. I found the reading to be very slow moving and seemingly without direction in some areas. The details are charming if you know something about the geography(and I do). Northampton and the characters within it are well developed and take on a certain reality of there own, kind of like those neighbors we once knew. All small town parameters are amply covered in terms of history, politics, and an occasional buffoon. Smith College, hospitals, other institutions, streets, and surrounding hills paint an unforgettable picture of this Pioneer valley. A wonderfully quiet read full of entertaining information and imagination.
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Summary: Mixed bag
Review: Tracy Kidder did an excellent job of capturing the many facets of Northampton. Unfortunately, the story didn't capture my attention like I had hoped. Perhaps I'm too biased from having visited Northampton so many times in my life. I kept thinking, "Yeah? So what's the big deal?" Perhaps I know too many people like the main characters? Perhaps I've lived in too many other towns like Northampton. Granted, I've never found a town QUITE like Northampton but I've found similar places with their own complex webs of history, shame and quirks. I have a feeling the "flatness" of the story probably had something to do with the fact that Kidder was reporting reality. I couldn't help but wonder if Kidder was manipulating any of the characters in his book to get a better story. (I doubt it but the thought did cross my mind) Kidder took on a difficult task and I suppose he did about as well as he could. It's an interesting, voyeuristic read and it really does reflect the reality of Northampton.
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Summary: Very nicely written; gives a sense of a 'blip on the map'
Review: I have family in Northampton, MA (where this book is set) and have always loved to visit and walk into town. In a way I was surprised to see that this otherwise insignificant little town was worth an entire 300+ pages (hardcover) but I also wasn't surprised, perhaps because of the great diversity of people that Kidder refers to in this book. Having read this book (well most of it) and seen many of the points Kidder refers to, I can now get a better appreciation for Main Street, which I had otherwise thought of as 'just another town street', and the history of the town as a whole. Well written and very hard to put down.
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Summary: Fascinating Read
Review: "Home Town" is not just any old American town; it is Northampton, MA, historical, a charmer, home of Smith College, and just the right size (30,000) big enough to have a few amenities, but small enough to give a sense of place. This is not a sociological tract, and those looking for stats, graphs, and comparison figures will be disappointed. "Home Town" is thoughtful, sometimes lyrical, sometimes character study with Northampton itself playing the lead role. Policeman Tommy O'Conner, a townie who knows every inch of Northampton and can't imagine being anywhere else, serves as the author's master of ceremonies. Mr. Kidder's depiction of Tommy is so well etched, he comes alive for me in the memory of all the redheaded, rowdy, Catholic boys I knew in another New England town. Laura, a single welfare mother is a full time student at Smith. She is positioned between the enlightened guidance of Smith and the humiliating bureaucracy of welfare and the stress is well nigh intolerable. Admittedly the oxymoron of a Smith student on welfare struck me as bizarre. Mike Ryan is a District Judge, old family Northampton and like Tommy cannot imagine himself anywhere else, but for entirely different reasons. Alan, a wealthy man who suffers from an extremely severe Compulsive/Obsessive Disorder is in some ways the town eccentric. He wears plastic bags over his hands in order not to contaminate himself. He is also a fascinating, brilliant man and is fortunate that Northampton treats him with dignity and forbearance. These real people allow us to see different sides of Northampton. I do not think the author gives enough weight to Smith College's pervading influence on the town of Northampton. It is Smith that draws in the intellectual community, provides much of Northampton's employment, and creates an environment for the growth of community activists, partisans and different life-styles. The highly praised renovated downtown area would not have come about without the support of Smith and its students. Downtown has expensive boutiques, fine restaurants, bookstores, art galleries and trendy lofts in which to live. The "townies" shop in the strip malls. Mr. Kidder amply describes the beauty of the Pioneer Valley and the jewel like setting of Northampton. But before you pack your bags (and do remember to bring your snowshoes!) to move posthaste to Northampton, keep in mind it is expensive, hard to find employment and the nearest town of any size is Springfield, MA. A very enjoyable and interesting read.
-sweetmolly-
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