Rating: 
Summary: Mind Reader
Review: "What's wrong with me? My home is neat and tidy (and big) and the neighborhood is tranquil, so why am I so BORED? How come my kids seem so aloof (comatose)? I'd go out, but even if there were no rush hour traffic I probably won't find a good parking spot." How many Americans have thought this? Jim Kunstler reads our minds and then deftly and humorously spells out why a "robust" economy hasn't done a thing to strengthen our lives and families. Folks, we don't know one another anymore because we're too doped up on all the "necessities" of life (Car, big-screen, cell-phone). Is traditional town planning the elixir we need to save us? Probably not. However, it becomes painfully clear after reading this indispensible book that suburban sprawl has done a lot more to us than contribute countless sterile neighborhoods to the landscape. This book, in many ways, has changed my life. GET IT...READ IT.
Rating:
Summary: Remaking Our Towns and Cities
Review: As a law student who recently decided to go for a masters in urban planning, I cannot overemphasize how influential Kunstler's writing was on my decision. Before I knew much about the field of planning, I knew that I was disgusted by the banal strip mall developments and cookie cutter homes marring the American landscape. Once I read Kunstler's first book, the Geography of Nowhere, the impact of development was clear in my mind. I began digging into this new subject. Geography of Nowhere tells how we got to this point (federal highway grants, VA Loans, the historical perspective on car-centered development), while his latest book tells us where we can begin to make a change in the urban environment, and Kunstler offers opinions and well-thouht diatribes aimed at improving the state of America's cities. His writing is down-to-earth and personal, which draws tha reader into considering how his or her own perspective is shaped by the urban environment. One of the magazine reviewers wrote that his writing is disjointed, which is somewhat true - the book reads as a series of essays - but it is no less readable and engaging. I think of Kunstler's books as an important gateway for citizen activism - once you read Kunstler, you'll likely be interested in reading more books about town planning and the New Urbanism, and you will have a newfound adamance about a previously obscure topic.
Rating: 
Summary: Ideas: B+. Writing: C-.
Review: I bought the book after reading the back cover copy, thinking it would be interesting because cities have always fascinated me. Well, it is hard to describe exactly how I felt reading the book. It was very incisive and eye-opening in explaining why suburban life creates the disconnectedness, the apathy, and the isolation so many people feel--and how the cities in their present state induce the rage and crime typical of those environments. In that respect it was interesting, but I didn't make it to the end of the book because:
(a)All of this was so depressing I wanted to curl up in a little ball and die; and
(b)Kunstler's writing is way off the charts--hyperbolic, strident, and slightly hysterical. I found this very off-putting. He could've said the same things in a normal, calm, in-control way and probably gained a wider audience and opened the subject up for more objective consideration. When people get freaked out, there's no room for actual discourse, so I think Kunstler did himself and his subject a disservice by writing like such a chihuahua.
To sum up, I would like to see other books about this subject written by cooler heads.
Rating:
Summary: Resonates with me
Review: I read Kunstler's work on New Urbanism because it resonates with me. I used to drive an hour each way through work through mind-rending traffic, and I lived in subdivision where I could only leave by car, although most destinations were within 1 mile. I know the suburban sprawl of which Kunstler speaks, and it is refreshing to read a point of view that gels with my own experience. I see some issues in what he writes about, particularly in that many solutions are feasible only for the well off, but much of it strikes me as true. It may be polemic - although Home from Nowhere is packed with facts compared to Geography of Nowhere - but this polemic speaks to me at times.Home from Nowhere has several chapters with tangible plans for civic improvement, including both urban renewal and `greenfield' development. Concrete examples are given to demonstrate the principles of New Urbanism, as well as examples where New Urbanism failed to make an impact. Sections of the book seem like a rebuttal to responses to Geography of Nowhere. He mentions that he has traveled more and acquired an education in architectural principles, and his facts and research do make the book more worthwhile. If you have already read Geography of Nowhere, this book can fill in some of the gaps between the rhetoric. The last several chapters began to drag. First, the reader spends some time in Florida with a like-minded developer. Then there is the scathing chapter on local politics in upstate New York. Finally, an interesting chapter on organic farming seems tacked on without connection to the rest of the text. Most amusing of all was the autobiographical segment, where we learn the author was teased in his inner-city high school. One might draw the conclusion that the author's early experiences formed many of his opinions. While I am sure that was the intent of this chapter, I doubt he intended some of the conclusions I drew from his early life. I might mention some of the stereotyping that may offend readers of this book, and in fact, may lead me to write a letter to Mr. Kunstler. I will mention a few incidents. In one chapter on Memphis, Kunstler painstakingly reproduces the southerner's dialect, although he does this for no one else. In another chapter, he discusses muggings in NYC, and describes a typical mugger wearing hip-hop fashions. He apologizes in advance and then continues to discuss the problems of the inner-city poor. He mentions WASPs and all the evils they proliferate in passing. Finally, I was most shocked by his stereotyping of women. He writes: "An unmarried schoolteacher could not afford to live near the schoolchildren she taught, not to mention the cleaning lady." Apparently the author associates teaching and cleaning with women - their traditional roles. He should take more care in his use of gender pronouns. If you took the good parts of Geography of Nowhere and the good parts of this book (particularly the first few chapters, which were very fact-filled), you would have an excellent book on the principles of New Urbanism. The writing style can be very appealing. However, this book is not perfect.
Rating:
Summary: disappointing sequel
Review: I was enthralled by Kunstler's first book, _The Geography of Nowhere_, but extremely disappointed by _Home from Nowhere_. His strength in _The Geography of Nowhere_ was in pointing out the fatal flaws in post-war urban planning - that he is at once disgusted, cynical and passionate about city design made it a compelling read. But _Home from Nowhere_ falls flat as often happens when someone who is very good at finding problems decides to find solutions. Kunstler's proposals are often not helpful, and many (esp. in the area of property tax reform) have already been tried unsuccessfully in a few cities. Kunstler seems to have become a devotee of Andres Duany - but Duany's _Suburban Nation_ is a much more worthwhile read for those interested in eliminating suburban sprawl and poor urban planning.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone should read this book
Review: I was required to read this book for my Urban Studies course, but although I had to read it, I found myself liking it. Kunstler manages to articulate many things about suburbia that had been bothering me, but which I could not put into words. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and I now realize that there is a better way to live than the way most of us have been living. He is a candid, clear, and persuasive writer and I look forward to reading more of his books in the future.
Rating:
Summary: passionate but uneven
Review: James Kunstler has written what should be considered the 'new urbanism' manifesto. In 'Home From Nowhere', Kunstler tackles the many problems in urban America and offers some real world solutions and ideas. From the car-free urban core, to progressive zoning and urban taxation, he paves the road on how to strengthen and remodel our vital urban cores. I would highly recommend this book to any future or current urban city council members, or future or present state politicians. This is a great vision of what our urban areas could become, and Kunstler paints the picture in broad and realistic strokes. Five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Remodeling Hell
Review: The author of this book is a novelist by trade, with eight completed works already under his belt. However, having had no formal architectural training, his understanding of the subject in general, and what we have done to the physical fabric of our country in specific, is profound, enlightening and deeply important. For despite what we might imagine, "buildings foster certain kinds of behavior in humans." And our rush to pave over the nation with strip malls, urban sprawl, industrial parks, and seven-lane freeways ("anti-places") all tend to suppress and distort our better natures. Reading this book is both humorous and disheartening at the one and same time. It is humorous and easy to read, because the author's writing style is mature, articulate, and witty - clearly one of the quirks of his being a novelist. Disheartening, because it plainly documents how American cities have devolved into bleak, relentless, noisy, squalid, smoky, smelly, explosively expanding, socially unstable, dehumanizing sinkholes of industrial foulness congested with ragtag hordes of racing automobiles. In response to the tragedy of our cities, we seek escape. After the war, most Americans jumped into the wagon and fled for the suburbs. However, even there we find no guarantee of spiritual or physical ease. Cut off from grocery stores, city-centers, cafes, and work, we end up spending half our life (not to mention half our income) "sitting inside a tin can on the freeway." We have become "a drive-in civilization," scuttling between non-descript office malls, "schools that look fertilizer factories," warehouse-like grocery stores, paved-over mega malls, and the congested cities we left behind in the first place - all because none of these places are within walking or biking distance after having fled to the suburbs. In fact, life in the suburbs is so unsatisfactory that we seek alternate escape routes, having no other place to flee. The majority of our free time is spent glued in front of the TV screen or at the theatre, where we catch glimpses of a better world. When we are not in either of those places, we "escape to nature" via a weekend camping trip (because nature knows how to design esthetically-pleasing places) or head to Disneyland. Ah, Disneyland.... "The public realm in America became so atrocious in the postwar decades that the Disney Corporation was able to create an artificial substitute for it and successfully sell it as a commodity." Americans love Disney world, as the author points out, because it is only social terrain left that has not been colonized by the car. Although we may not realize it on a conscious level, "The design quality of Disney World ... is about 1.5 notches better than the average American suburban shopping mall or housing subdivision - so Americans love it." Yet this fantasy land is "ultimately less satisfying than reality, and only deepens our hunger for the authentic." In essence, the book is one long screed against shoddy civic design, car-centered development, single-use zoning laws (a subject that enrages the author to the point of profanity), and loss of excellence and beauty in architectural design. In place of these, the author wishes to reinvigorate community connectivity, enliven the public sphere, enthrone commonsense zoning laws, and start designing beautiful, lasting structures - just like we used to. As the author reminds us, "In such a setting, we feel more completely human. This is not trival." The alternative? Continuing on the "garbage barge steaming off to Nowhere."
Rating:
Summary: passionate but uneven
Review: This book started out on a strong note, with Kunstler's typically searing rhetoric and a well-written overview of what's wrong with American city and town planning. However, it soon deteriorated into undisciplined discussions about farming and the political saga of Saratoga Springs. Eventually, the book peters out almost completely, as Kunstler waxes nostalgic about his boyhood in New York and ends with a bizarre, egocentric soliloquy that has something to do with painting a McDonald's and biking to the YMCA. I was disappointed with the unevenness of this book, especially after such a powerful, interesting beginning. Also, Kunstler's personality and opinions on certain issues are likely to turn some readers off; he frequently seems almost crotchety and bitter as he frowns on things like "teenage rebellion," rock & roll, and "black Nationalism." Although Kunstler's commitment to sound planning principles is admirable, his views on more complex sociopolitical issues are so simplistic as to just make him seem stupid (for example, he essentially denies the significance of systematic racial discrimination). Unfortunately, Kunstler makes it seem like he wants to go back to the ultimate '50s version of small-town life, complete with corner five-and-dime stores, ballgames in the Ramble, and cheery milk deliverymen. He does *not* seem to favor exciting urban development like the kind happening in Europe, since it might contain people "dressed in high top sneakers and a sideways hat." I would recommend Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere" to this sequel. Or if you must read this book, maybe you could follow it up with something like William Upski Wimsatt's "Bomb the Suburbs," which at least shows an appreciation for the vibrancy of *modern* city life.
Rating:
Summary: A Joy to Read, A Book to Treasure
Review: This is a splendid sequel to "Geography of Nowhere". Kuntler's usual searing wit and no-nonsense style is evident throughout. It seemed to cover just about everything that ails urban & suburban planning since WW2. My only misgivings are that is does not adequately address a few issues that lie at the heart of the cancerous growth of America's hideous sprawlscape and the flight of the middle class from traditional city & town life: 1. Relentless population growth driven primarily by record levels of legal & illegal immigration, 2. The manipulation of US energy & transportation policy by parasitical corporate interests & their lobbyists, and, 3. The short term, 'throw away' mindset of the building materials industries and the residential McHome developers. The incentive to move to the suburbs is greatly enhanced by the artificially low cost of new homes due to idiotic short-sighted building codes, atrocious bldg materials with little durability, suppressed labor costs due to illegal immigrant labor, and subsidized infrastructure for single use auto use (road networks, vast prkg lots & artificially cheap gasoline).
Overall however, this is an excellent book!
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