Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette: A Mostly Affectionate Account of a Small Town's Fight to Survive [Hardcover]

Bill Kauffman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2003

A hilarious, sometimes touching tribute to an endangered American town under constant siege from the modern world

Bill Kauffman is a new addition to the American chorus of small-town voices. Think Garrison Keillor for 2003; Thornton Wilder, thornier and wilder; Mark Twain in a world gone Wal-Mart. Now, without the slightest nod to etiquette, discretion, or political correctness, Kauffman uses his beloved but beleaguered hometown of Batavia, New York, to assess the state of small-town life in these big-city times.

Kauffman, a self-proclaimed "placeist" who believes that things urban are homogenizing our national scene, returned to his roots after a bumpy ride on the D.C. fast track. Rarely has he ventured forth since. Here he illuminates the place he loves, traveling from Batavia's scenic vistas to the very seams of its grimy semi-industrial pockets, from its architecturally insignificant new mall to the pastoral grounds of its internationally known School for the Blind. Not one to shy from controversy, Kauffman also investigates his town's efforts to devastate its landmarks through urban renewal, the passions simmering inside its clogged political machinery, and the sagging fortunes of its baseball heroes, the legendary Muckdogs.
Kauffman has created a truly memorable book about American community-with lots of hilarity and lots of heart.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kauffman's memoir of moving back to his hometown of Batavia, N.Y., after a bumpy ride on the Washington, D.C., fast track is a sort of Our Town with attitude. " `Placeism' might be described in the criminal code as the unreasoned love of a particular place, be it a neighborhood, village, city, or even state," Kauffman writes. "[Placeists] believe that one town is not pretty much like the next.... The differences between my Batavia, New York, and your town go well beyond the last names of the night-shift managers at Taco Bell and the Auto Zone." Unlike Garrison Keillor's folksy Lake Wobegon, Kauffman's Batavia is a real town with real problems. Hundreds of miles of its farmland were churned up to accommodate the sprawling New York State Thruway in the 1950s, and the charming five-block downtown was replaced with a shopping mall now "used in urban-planning texts as a case study in disaster." But this witty author of With Good Intentions?: Reflections on the Myth of Progress in America finds what little charm still exists between J.C. Penney and multiple Wendy's outposts and describes it here with terrific humor. Readers will laugh out loud at descriptions of Kauffman's 20th high school reunion and prickly, proud townies. Whether he's delving into upstate history or dipping into his personal palette of local color, Kauffman always stays true to one basic mantra: "Batavia will always let you down, you can never depend on it, but it's home, and that has to be enough."
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

As a senatorial flunky on Capitol Hill, the author rued his sense of dislocation and returned to live in his hometown of Batavia, New York. Over the past 15 years, the forty-something author put together this mordant portrait of Batavia, whose distance from poles of power hasn't insulated it from downtown-destroying "progress"--shopping malls, Wal-Marts, big government, and big corporations. A cheerful reactionary, Kauffman inveighs against the forces of homogenization, describing Batavia's history, its leading citizens of yore (including Edna Gruber, philanthropist and brothel keeper), and its buildings, businesses, bush-league baseball team (the Muckdogs), churches, and lifelong residents. In extolling Batavian particularities, Kauffman combines acidic denunciation of civic shortsightedness with affection for the town. This technique has an entrancing effect: the skein of town society, from the habitues of the cafes to the local congressman, unwinds a panoramic civic fabric one can't resist. Kauffman's ode will resonate with those who are discontented with uniform, rootless urbanism. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 206 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1st edition (March 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805068546
• ISBN-13: 978-0805068542
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,235,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Caustic But Loving Tale Of A Hometown's Decline August 24, 2003

By W. C HALL VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This is a highly passionate and highly entertaining book. Author Bill Kauffman was born in Batavia, New York, and as the book's jacket copy notes, experienced "a bumpy ride on the Washington, DC fast track." After that, he knew it was time to return to his roots.

"Dispatches" is a celebration of the people and institutions that make Batavia uniquely Batavian, but it's by no means a rose-colored look at small town life. Because he cares so much, Kauffman is unflinching in his criticism of the community when it strays from its history and values. He's particularly eloquent in writing about the destruction of the city's old central business district and its replacement with a soulless mall, the product of misguided urban renewal. He also looks back at Batavia's colorful political history, including its dubious distinction as birthplace of the anti-Masonic movement; chronicles the decline and fall of Carr's, once the town's finest department store, the inevitable victim of the Wal-Marting and KMarting of America; he takes us to the local ballpark to meet the minor league team he grew up with, the Muckdogs. But lest we think the author's love for his community is wavering, we only have to look to this pronouncement: "This is my place, and whatever I might say about it, however caustic or corrosive my pen, I love it and will forever."

"Dispatches From the Muckdog Gazette," is an eloquent celebration of the power and importance of community spirit.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute gem of a book March 15, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Twenty years ago, the Pretenders had a marvelous song, "My City Was Gone," about the insidious erasure of local identity: "My pretty countryside / Had been paved down the middle / By a government that had no pride." Bill Kauffman's gem of a book provides a less-hummable but equally memorable update to that song.

Growing up in Batavia, NY, a small-but-unique western NY town, Kauffman sees the city (as the locals call it) start to willfully give up its grand architecture and history with 1960s urban renewal, then moves away to Washington DC and Los Angeles in the 1980s, and ultimately returns there to live, finding the place essentially homogenized into blandness and deterioration. Nonetheless, he and several hearty locals of several generations fight to preserve what's left and maintain it as somewhere worth living.

In this, the story of his hometown that he loves so much, we meet multitudes of memorable characters, good and bad: The Cadillac-driving Monsignor whose will titillated from the grave. The self-important dentist who wouldn't mind hearing "Hail to the Chief" at the legislature meetings over which he presides, and who is quick to name-drop that as an admiral in the Naval Reserve during the Gulf War (in which he served as a dentist), he met Colin Powell. The local madam and philanthropist whose Catholic burial scandalized the town. The dedicated and heroic Congressman who serves the region with distinction, becomes President of the World Bank, and returns home to man the cashbox at the local historical society fundraisers. The tortured novelist who dies before his time, under-appreciated in the place of his birth. The "good Joe" men and women who sit with the author along the third base line at the games of the hometown Muckdogs (the minor league baseball team from which the book's name is derived).

This book is about Batavia, NY but could be about any town low on the radar screen. It's clearly a love letter from the author to his flawed paramour, and it's tough to give five stars to something so intimate and personal, but that's what I must do.

This book won't be for everyone. Big city dwellers and "keep up with the Joneses" suburbanites might not understand why someone would give up the bright lights and fast track of the big city to return to the sticks and forge a unique identity. Parts of the book, especially the first 40 pages, drag down in references to obscure authors and historical minutiae. Ample gratuitous profanity and casual use of every ethnic and racial slur imaginable (including frequent barbs at those sharing Kauffman's German and Italian ancestry) may give vapors to the sensitive.

But readers willing to tolerate the above will find "Muckdog Gazette" to be a challenging read that amply rewards those who are up to its challenge. The author clearly burned lots of shoe leather in researching this book (instead of just relating his own personal experiences), and does an excellent job telling his stories. There are plenty of chuckles, plenty of breathless belly laughs, plenty of moments of real inspiration. Batavia is fortunate to have Bill Kauffman. Kauffman is fortunate to have Batavia. We - and they - are fortunate to have this book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Kauffman Comes Back From Washington March 26, 2003

By Patrick Weissend

Format:Hardcover

Every so often, a book comes along that really makes the reader think. Elba resident and author Bill Kauffman's upcoming book, Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette does just that. The book is about the changes in Batavia through the eyes of Mr. Kauffman. I was fortunate enough to receive an advance copy and was able to read the 200-page book over the weekend. It contains a lot of humor (many times I laughed out loud, receiving strange looks in the process), some sadness, but it really asks the question, "Why has Batavia changed?" The author does not hold back when writing about religion, ethnicity and race to answer the question. He introduces the reader to many local characters, and tells many stories about Batavians. Although hometown is the book's model, Batavia can be substituted for any small city in America.
Upon graduating from Batavia High School in 1977, Mr. Kauffman left for college and spent time in Washington, D.C. and Southern California before coming home for a "one year experiment" with his Los Angeles raised wife, Lucine. Fourteen years later, the Kauffman family is still here, and Kauffman is trying to keep Batavia from becoming too "progressive" at the hands of politicians who what to rip down the old charms of Batavia and replace them with new, "cookie-cutter" landmarks that help Batavia lose its distinct character.
The book is not a lesson on Batavia history; it is a memoir, a love song and most assuredly a call to arms. Some may be offended by some of the language, but it is used to make a point. Should this book be required reading at BHS? Absolutely. Every BHS senior should read this. It will give them a sense of identity and purpose as they move off into the great big world. Mr. Kauffman writes with passion and love for his home. He also has a paternal protection towards Batavia, and does not want to see it destroyed. After reading the book, it really made me think about the community and what I can do to protect it. I do not agree with everything Mr. Kauffman writes about, but I respect his passion and pride. He only wants what is best for the community and doesn't want a select few narrow-minded politicians ruining it for everybody.