As the authors dropped from the sky into communities from Sioux Falls, S.D., to Duluth, to Ajo, N.M., to Burlington, Vt., to St. Mary’s, Ga., they slowly pieced together a list of qualities that determine why some communities make it and others don’t. Among them: innovative schools, true public-private partnerships and real, thriving downtowns ... Superbly reported, cleanly and briskly written, brimming with real-life solutions, this is a book for anyone who cares about the life of American communities.
The most surprising aspect of their exploration, which they first chronicled in The Atlantic, where James Fallows is a longtime national correspondent, is how seldom they got a chance to talk about the issues we think of as being at the top of the national agenda. The more bustling a town, the less likely that national politics came up in conversation. That seems quaint, given the bitter partisanship that seems to have cleaved the country in 2018, big city and small town alike ... what James and Deborah Fallows manage to show us, as if we were riding along with them on their craft, which is known in the skies as November 435 Sierra Romeo, is that much of America’s vibrancy is off the beaten path.
She [Mrs. Fallows] characterizes people and their communities in novel ways, reflecting on topics like rural radio, which offers up 'local crop prices and advice on pest control' and entire stations 'dedicated to Willie Nelson, or Bruce Springsteen.' Some of the best observations in the book are her snippets on regional linguistic quirks ... Mr. Fallows, by contrast, palpably fears the undeserved or uninformed generalization, and he hesitates to shed even the most minute details of a town’s history. Straining to accommodate as many proper nouns as possible, he lists and explains ... The only prominent figures in Our Towns are those with a motivation to advertise; the only conversations with ordinary citizens happen in the lines of ice-cream shops and grocery stores—and such encounters offer hardly enough time for people to share a serious critique of the town where they live. As a result, references to deeper matters are comically quick. The opioid crisis, present in many of the places the authors traveled to, earns only a few mentions ... Their optimistic, upward-striving America sometimes feels like a Potemkin village ready to tip over.
The conversational tone of what is essentially the Fallowses’ travel diary is recurrently dulled by the drone of data-speak, fact- and statistic-laden, that, while welcome in our fact-sketchy contemporary climate, makes for some arduous reading ... The good news is welcome. The bad news is a lack of dramatic tension. Any alternate narrative of dying towns still trying, or failing, to rehabilitate themselves largely gets lost ... There is a great deal of fascinating information leavened throughout Our Towns ... That the couple have collected them between covers is a noble achievement.
The agents of recovery grow familiar the longer one lingers in Our Towns: young, creative types who move to the area from bigger cities or return to launch start-ups; local officials and business leaders striking public-private partnerships (the authors adore public-private partnerships); and an overarching 'local patriotism' ... But there is a boosterish vibe running through this book that mars its analytic efforts. It may be the confirmation bias that results when you purposely seek out towns with great turnaround stories that can form a broader national narrative, or simply the perils of interviewing so many people who get paid to promote their cities.
Hope seeps into every page of this book, even in the language itself. Instead of referring to downtown Fresno, Calif., as 'rundown' or 'blighted,' James calls it 'an example of the ‘before’ stage of civic recovery' ... Beyond documenting the contours of urban life most often ignored in national news, the book mainly serves as an instruction manual. At the end, the writers unveil a list of the key elements found in thriving towns. It reads almost like a recipe ... The message here is straightforward and earnest: These are the steps to making life better for the place where you live.
With a commitment to observation and a sincere desire to understand each place on their journey, they offer a fascinating review of the many economic, environmental, educational, and cultural efforts taking place all over America. Far from the national narrative of crisis and decay, the authors suggest that a more hopeful renewal may be under way.
The chronological approach to this narrative can be frustrating at first—readers may wish the authors had reported on the towns by topic or by geography, rather than traveling from South Dakota to Maine in the first year, then starting over in South Carolina the next. In the end, though, being able to make discoveries with the Fallows as they go from place to place is part of the book’s charm ... Together, they paint a rich picture of a complex country in this finely detailed love letter to America.
Writing with lively curiosity and open minds, the couple have created textured portraits of 29 American cities ... A well-reported, optimistic portrait of America’s future.
The Fallowses’ reportage from fly-over territory occasionally feels schmaltzy ... and they skirt troubling features of development strategies, like the antiunion animus of Southern states. Still theirs is an eye-opening, keenly optimistic reminder of the strength of America’s vital center.
