Jonathan Harr author of A Civil Action ...at times hilarious, at times painful, and altogether spellbinding.
People ...a grand vision of a small place.
The Philadelphia Inquirer ...nothing less than a valentine to a place and the people who nurture it. It may be Kidder's best and most elegiac work.
USA Today A book about the fabric that holds a town together...it proves drama, large or small, Is found in unlikely places.
Booklist (starred review) 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.
The Boston Globe Kidder's protagonist...is Northampton itself. And there's no better way to see it than with a Kidder's-eye view.
Grand Rapids Press (MI) Home Town is a masterwork.
The Sun (Baltimore) 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 New York Times In Tommy O'Connor, Kidder has given us that rare thing, a rich likeness of a breathing, complicated human being.