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Loading... Home Townby Tracy Kidder
None. Tracy Kidder is a splendid writer and great observer of human foibles. In this account of his current hometown, he did not have to venture far to discover his subjects. Northampton, Massachusetts, is an affluent college town of twenty to thirty thousand people with a rather surprising amount of drug-related crime and abuse for such a small community. As Kidder's main protagonist is a cop this may have accentuated the picture he paints. Kidder's coverage of Northampton is, unfortunately, rather sketchy. As upstanding citizens are rather unwilling to see their lives laid bare, Kidder has to rely on government servants (mayor, judge, cop) and the socially deprived and disadvantaged who fail to notice that such social exposure of their quirks isn't to their benefit. The strangest tale in the book is of a mentally disturbed rich recluse whose foibles and life story are exposed to unclear benefit. While Kidder's writing is never dull, the book isn't what I expected - a portrait of modern small town America. A better title would have been: A small town cop and a town's quirky inhabitants. (  ) jcbrunner | Jul 31, 2012 |  The great Tracy Kidder hangs out in Northampton, Massachusetts, and meets all sorts of interesting people. (  ) wanack | Aug 12, 2010 | The home town in this book is Northampton MA and I read this book when I was going there biweekly. Because of my personal involvement with the town, I thought the book was interesting in parts, because the town itself is interesting and quirky. However, it is too long and none of the characters in it are very compelling. (  ) VictoriaNH | Jul 17, 2010 | My new favorite author. I have enjoyed all his books even though I just started reading him this year. His non-fiction reads better than most fiction. shazjhb | Jun 18, 2010 | Kidder has an incredible style. His personal narratives are compelling and fascinating. Here he views an everyday small town and makes you care about the lives of those he chronicles. (  ) Borg-mx5 | Apr 20, 2010 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0671785214, Paperback)Northampton, Massachusetts, boasts a rich history that dates back to the 17th century. It is home to Mount Holyoke, which has been climbed by Charles Dickens and Henry James (among others), and to Sylvia Plath's alma mater, Smith College. It has always been the quintessential New England town, while becoming in recent years a politically progressive small city, whose population of 30,000 has WASPs rubbing elbows with lesbians, immigrants, students, and the homeless. Driven by a narrative force comparable to that of the best fiction, Home Town is a remarkable evocation of small-town life at the end of the 20th century.Probing beneath Northampton's friendly exterior, Pulitzer-winning author Tracy Kidder uncovers the town's many layers, from the lowest to the highest rungs of society, and renders a portrait of Northampton by introducing those who know it best. Kidder relies most heavily on native Tommy O'Connor, a 33-year-old police sergeant who has never left his beloved hometown. Tommy's optimism and gentle humor make him an appealing guide, as he shows both the darkest and most charming streets of his town and wrestles with a future that may forever alter his relationship to Northampton. Kidder also introduces readers to Laura Baumeister, a young working mother and Ada Comstock scholar at Smith College who is struggling to care for her son and keep up with the rigorous school curriculum; Alan Scheinman, a real estate lawyer who made a fortune in the 1980s, now plagued by a crippling case of obsessive-compulsive disorder; and Samson Rodriguez, a former loom operator who may have been one of the first people to bring crack cocaine to Northampton. --Kera Bolonik (retrieved from Amazon Sun, 13 Jan 2013 16:25:57 -0500) "In this splendid book, one of America's masters of nonfiction takes us home--into Hometown, U.S.A., the town of Northampton, Massachusettes, and into the lives of the people who live there. It is a place of startling complexity. Weaving together compelling stories of individual lives, delving into a rich and varied past, moving among all the levels of Northampton's social hierarchy, Kidder finds a great diversity contained within the town's narrow boundaries."… (more) |
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