I read some of the weaker reviews here before writing this, and I just don't see how people who have enjoyed his other books didn't also love this one.As usual with Kidder, his non-fiction prose read like a novel. And this story is a difficult one in that he had to blend more people and more place settings than he had to do in the other works of his I've read. Nevertheless, most of the internal stories pulled me in to the point I care about the people and what was happening to them.I suspect Kidder had planned on this work to go in some different directions than never panned out over the course of the year he spent with the principals. For example, he includes a fair amount of foreshadowing about the upcoming Mayoral election, then then "pfft", the election happens as a non-story. I suspect he thought there would be a story line that never panned out--and perhaps there were some election characters he ended up not including.The story of the police officer's best friend was, to me, the most gripping of the book. I can't imagine Kidder knew going in that this would become an important part of the narrative (I am staying vague here to avoid spoilers for those who have not yet read Home Town.)My five stars are based on my own reading (albeit three years ago already), and the fact that I find myself buying this book as a gift to every friend who moves to a small New England town.