Home Town

Reviews

"[Kidder's] smart and gently ironic writing is always good company."
—Ben Yagoda, The New York Times

"In Tommy O'Connor, Kidder has given us that rare thing, a rich likeness of a breathing, complicated human being."
—The New York Times

"A book about the fabric that holds a town together... it proves drama, large or small, is found in unlikely places."
—USA Today

"Extraordinary."
—Time

"...at times hilarious, at times painful, and altogether spellbinding."
—Jonathan Harr, author of A Civil Action

"...a grand vision of a small place. "
—People

"...nothing less than a valentine to a place and the people who nurture it. It may be Kidder's best and most elegiac work."
— The Philadelphia Inquirer

"A remarkably detailed, accomplished, and empathic portrait....Kidder's acutely observed, crisply written, and utterly absorbing documentary proves that there is nothing on this spinning earth more amazing and full of grace than everyday life. "
—Booklist (starred review)

"Kidder's protagonist...is Northampton itself. And there's no better way to see it than with a Kidder's-eye view. "
—The Boston Globe

"Home Town is a masterwork. "
—Grand Rapids Press (MI)

"Kidder is a master of the nonfiction narrative, one of those rare writers who can make a reader forget the story and instead experience the sensation of life happening before his or her eyes. In doing this so well, and in getting it right, Tracy Kidder transports us to an ordinary place where ordinary people live ordinary lives -- and every bit of it is fascinating. "
—The Sun (Baltimore)

For the full text of Christopher Lehmann-Haupt's review of Home Town in The New York Times Book Review, click here.