Home Town
Kidder takes a look at Northampton, Massachusetts, through the eyes of a small-town policeman, his old friends from school, the people he works for and works with and arrests. Kidder knows how to write and knows how to use interviews. In a sense, he's the Studs Terkel of his generation. There's nothing here as interesting as the wonderful Soul of a New Machine because his subject simply isn't as interesting; the first book remains one of the very best looks at how doing science actually feels.