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tessisreading2's review against another edition
3.0
Engrossing but definitely more about the people Kidder was following - Tommy, Laura, etc. - than about Northampton itself; I enjoyed reading it but it's not a re-read. One gets a sense of the people but not the place.
mscalls's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Sexual content, Death, and Child abuse
Moderate: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Alcoholism, and Transphobia
buckleburyfairie's review against another edition
My family is from Northampton and I lived there for many years so I was excited about this book, but I was disappointed in the person the author chose to follow around. There are so many wonderful and diverse people in Northampton and any of them would have been infinitely more interesting than a white cop. Such a disappointment.
circularcubes's review against another edition
I got to page 90 and gave up because tbh I can't get past the underlying "Northampton is full of lesbians now!" vibe that I keep getting from this book. I picked it up from a free box and wanted to read it while I'm still here at Smith/Northampton. Unfortunately, times have changed, and all of America has changed with it, and this book doesn't feel accurate anymore. Furthermore, I am not the target audience of this book - quite the opposite, in fact. I don't care to read a book where the protagonist thinks that homosexual civil unions ruin the sanctity of marriage. I have one life to live, and I'd rather spend it reading books with queer protagonists.
dreamofbookspines's review against another edition
4.0
Occasionally long-winded, Kidder nonetheless writes a stunning novel of Northampton. It reads like a novel, but it's actually almost nonfiction, having been based on extensive research and interviews. The plot managed to keep me interested the whole way through despite its length. I'm not typically a reader of books by and about men. I think the magic of this book was largely because I've lived in the Northampton area for almost seven years. I love reading books about this area; it reminds me that literature can and does intersect with my world in very tangible ways.
Not all of it is true anymore, or accurate, but it's still a very cool portrait of a town with which I am intimately familiar.
Not all of it is true anymore, or accurate, but it's still a very cool portrait of a town with which I am intimately familiar.
cbates's review against another edition
3.0
Boring in the beginning, good at the end, didn't read the middle
cheriekg's review against another edition
5.0
I read Kidders' "House" decades ago and never forgot how he spun an entire, engrossing book out of everyday life. Home Town is the same, an easy topic taken deep and wide. I have quibbles about where he chose to focus, but look. This is an amazing achievement and a great read.
sdbecque's review
2.0
Eh, I decided to read this book because I'm heading back to the Pioneer Valley for a college reunion (I went to Mount Holyoke, not Smith) but I spent a lot of time in Northampton in my college years. Anyway, some of the history was interesting, but this felt way to much like not that interesting qualitative research. Northampton is a nice town, a pretty town, but it's not quite as interesting a tale as Kidder likes to believe he is telling. Everything is told with deadly seriousness. I would almost be more interested if this was a fictional account. I can't even explain why I disliked it, but it was boring, and it went on and on, the story was loosely threaded together by the story of a police officer, Tommy, who makes the characters in a Frank Capra movie seem like hooligans. Blah.