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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Book that Changed the Way I Thought about Books.,
This review is from: Staggerford (Paperback)
I first read Staggerford because I had friends who were students of Mr. Hassler at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. They said such wonderful things about him, that I decided to take a look at his first novel. By the time I finished it Staggerford had affected me so profoundly that I couldn't read another book for weeks. Only once before had I been so exhilrated (and disturbed at the same time) by a story: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.Why is Staggerford so affecting? Because the characters are not small-town hicks living in an isolated, backwards community. They have real ambitions, real quirks, and real drama in their lives. What is so remarkable about them is that while they are not ordinary people, they are also just like us, which is a refreshing paradox to find in fiction. Mr. Hassler's genuine affection for his characters is not sappy or syrupy, but is amusingly tempered by a small-town practicality that allows him to "tell it like it is." If you are looking for other Hassler books to dig into, I'd like to recommend something other than A Grand Journey and Dear James. Although I greatly enjoyed those two books, I'd like to suggest Rookery Blues and The Dean's List as examples of Mr. Hassler's incredible ability to build an amusing, unusual, and utterly real small town community.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A charming story of smal-town life in the midwest.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Staggerford: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
I feel compelled to add another review of this book, since the only one available to Amazon viewers is such a negative one. I started reading this book while house-sitting for friends years ago. I barely got into it when we had to leave and, over time, I forgot the title and spent the next seven years wondering about the characters and how everything turned out. Eventually, I ran across another book by Jon Hassler and recognized the writing style. It was a delight to find and reread "Staggerford" and I feel its story applies to today's society as well as it did in 1974. If you are looking for a book with nuclear submarines, car crashes and exploding helicopters, skip "Staggerford," but if you enjoy a great read about slightly eccentric characters living in a small town soup, then I recommend it.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
staggerford has become my standard book recommendation,
By A Customer
This review is from: Staggerford: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
Jon Hassler's books are deceptively simple, containing wonderful writing about everyday people in small-town Minnesota. I say that the writing is deceptive, because in spite of the settings and protagonists, the books have none of the hallmarks of, well, hallmark. The humor is abundant, but not folksy, the subject matter is life and sometimes death, without being melodramatic or contrived. Staggerford, his first novel, is a great place to start. I've given Staggerford to at least 30 people as part of a birthday or wedding or Christmas gift, and all of the recipients -- of many different reading preferences -- have thoroughly enjoyed it and most have gone on to read more Hassler. While it may not change your life, it's a perfect book for a summer's day on the porch with an iced-tea or a winter's night with hot chocolate.
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