Home Town

Rating:
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-

Rating:
Summary: Conveys accurate "shadow town" beyond the obvious
Review: I enjoyed "Home Town" because it delved into the "shadow town" that underlies the physical town most people experience. The characters that Kidder chose to follow were interesting and eclectic. The realities of the dark side of Northampton were amply illustrated as were some of its historical and rebuilding facets.

Kidder's characteristically clear prose and ability to draw illustrative scenes is evident throughout the book. I've rated this book 4 out of 5 stars because it didn't reach a satisfactory sense of closure -- many loose ends dangle. While this is a characteristic of the life of Northampton - or any town - I would have felt closure if Kidder had provided more follow-up on the main characters.

This is a good read and portrays something that may be missing for much of our transient society - a true sense of place and belonging. The multi-generational history of some of the book's characters should be warmly familiar to long-time members of any small town.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat good, but boring at times
Review: I enjoyed this book for the most part because I graduated from UMASS in Amherst several years ago. It was fun to read about places I've been to. However, some of the things that Tommy O'Connor did bothered me, such as his attitude towards teenagers hanging out in the park. He seemed to be one of those cops who just like to harass kids, and he's also hard line on any drug offenses, while I think that our drug policies are too punitive in this country. I enjoyed reading about Alan and Laura. I would have liked to have read more about Laura in particular. I found her story fascinating. Sometimes I put the book down for awhile, instead of reading it straight through, because some parts were boring and repetitive. I agree with some of the reviewers that it would have been important to interview or follow the story of a gay or lesbian resident. It's strange to me that he said in the back of the book, in the reader's guide, that he didn't meet any gay people that he wanted to write about, or something like that. I liked reading about O'Connor's problems with his friend Rick and his case, and about his childhood and family relationships. I'm not so interested in police work so maybe that's why I found it boring at times. I couldn't tell if Kidder supported the old time Northampton people or the newer, more liberal ones, but it seems like he was on O'Connor's side most of the time. I think I wouldn't be so sympathetic to any cop's point of view, so that's why this book wasn't as interesting to me as I thought it would be.

Rating:
Summary: Home Town Nostalgia
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.

Rating:
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.

Rating:
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.

Rating:
Summary: Great book!! I couldn't put it down!!
Review: I started reading Home Town about a week ago, and since then could not put it down. I just finished it, and was actually sad to see it end. While Northampton, Massachusetts (which I am a long-time resident of) is definitely not a typical small town, it has that small-town feel, which works for many reasons. There is a great deal of "new thinking," cultural diversity, and old-fashioned New England conservatism, and it all just comes together. Mr. Kidder does an excellent job on both the historical and modern-day influences here. If you have ever lived or visited here, you know exactly what I mean. While I read the book on a different level than a lot of other people because I live here and know some of the people in the book, I believe a lot of the incidents depicted in the book are happening in every city and town in America. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves where they live, wherever it may be.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting account of small town America
Review: Northhampton sounds like a fascinating place in the eyes of the author and I liked some (not all) of the characters he chose to portray.

Following a small town cop was an excellent anchor for the book. I found the policeman to be responsible, humorous and a typical local who was far from worldly because he knew no other world.

I also enjoyed following Laura, the single parent college student, who was struggling to find her way in the world. Kidder could've written more about her.

I absolutely got sick and tired of Alan, his obsessive-compulsive disorder and the details of his trips to strip bars. Worse than that, however, was the play-by-play of his obsession with a stripper who may or may not have liked the guy. Eventually, we never really come to any conclusion on what's going on with Alan's life. I could've read much less about Alan, like about 100 pages less.

Kidder also could've done more with the college, as in professors, students, etc. It is the foundation of the town.

I enjoy Kidder's storytelling abilities and writing styles, but this book needed a sharper editor. Some of the things Kidder gets hooked on were needless, in my opinion.

Overall, I did think it was a fine book and it makes me want to read more of Kidder's work.

Good solid work, but not worthy of a five-star rating.

Rating:
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.

Rating:
Summary: The Facts, Sir, (Not) Just the Facts
Review: Tracy Kidder's engaging books are, without exception, "great reads." If they continue to be billed as nonfiction, however, he and his publishers will need to correct page 126 of Home Town to remain credible in my book. St. Peter never said, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." St. Paul may have, in his Letter to the Hebrews, Chapter 13, Verse 2. It makes one wonder what else is misquoted. I'm disappointed.