Susan Campbell (2) (1959–)

This is an AMAZING book. A snapshot of a neighborhood that encapsulates American history. The history of immigrants, the lesser-told stories behind slavery in CT, behind the evolution of gangs in Hartford...with enough detail to give richness but not so much as to overwhelm. Not linear in the tracking of history, in terms of "this followed this" starting with the Native Americans, the book flows because of the interlinking of related events. Because A caused C which lead to F, oh, and then E lead to G, and so forth. Its a book that makes connections and links events in a different way, to show a totality. To show how the bigger picture and the smaller both fit in and interact in the forces of history. Definitely a must read!… (más)

There are a lot of good insights in this book, and I gave it only three stars for what may be an unfair reason: I don't think the author has fully come to terms with her religious upbringing and views. But maybe she never will -- I feel sorry for her there. Raised in a [C:]hurch of Christ congregation (she says that members are encouraged to use a small "c"), Campbell was both a firm adherent and a rebel because she could never quite see why girls/women couldn't preach or hold other church offices. Yet many years later, having left the church, earned a MARS (Master of Arts in Religious Studies) from Hartford Seminary, and worked as religion reporter for the Hartford Courant, she is filled with trepidation when asked to preach/speak at a local UCC church. And yet she also can't shake the conviction that the liberal churches that would welcome her aren't "real" churches. Visiting her brother, whose wife has led him into what sounds like a Southern Methodist would-be megachurch, she shares discomfort with him and he says "I guess fundamentalism broke off in us." She explains this as a metaphor of a key breaking off in a lock -- but to me her experience seems almost more like a knife breaking off and being left inside someone, poisoning them. I'd say the book is well worth reading although it left me unsatisfied.… (más)