Rating: 
Summary: Creepy
Review: A blatant partisan account by a creepy psychobabbler who injected herself into the lives of mourning 9/11 families for her personal gain. A societal parasite who should stop meddling in other people's lives.
Rating: 
Summary: An intimate look at the tragedy of 9-11 - Must read!!!
Review: As the second anniversary of 9-11 approached, I decided to purchase Middletown, America. Living in New Jersey, I thought it might be an interesting perspective of the events from those who lived near me. I had no idea how compelling, touching and truly rewarding this book would be and it actually changed my perspective on life. As many of us have "moved on" from the events of 9-11, Gail Sheehy brings into focus the broken lives of many who will never recover fully, and the enormous strength of all of these families to build a life again. After reading this book, I don't think I will ever want to complain about anything ever again!
Rating: 
Summary: Liberal Bias
Review: Dear Ms. Sheehy,I was disheartened to read your account of the Middletown
experience of 9/11. Having lost a dear friend, I was anticipating a moving story of the victims and thier families.
Instead, I read an extreme, biased book filled with your obvious liberal views about the Bush adminstration and thier handling of the 9/ll "pre-intelligence". How dare you market your book to the heartstrings of those who mourn those lost on this tragic day. Thanks to you for exploiting your ideas, I saved precious time in deciding to ignore reading the rest of your book.
Rating:
Summary: Liberal Bias
Review: Dear Ms. Sheehy, I was disheartened to read your account of the Middletown
experience of 9/11. Having lost a dear friend, I was anticipating a moving story of the victims and thier families.
Instead, I read an extreme, biased book filled with your obvious liberal views about the Bush adminstration and thier handling of the 9/ll "pre-intelligence". How dare you market your book to the heartstrings of those who mourn those lost on this tragic day. Thanks to you for exploiting your ideas, I saved precious time in deciding to ignore reading the rest of your book.
Rating:
Summary: Dismayed by the nit-pickers
Review: I finished reading this book around the same time the 9/11 Commission Report came out and am in awe of these women who, while still grieving and once considered "just housewives" to make the sure our country had ALL the facts and not just what the government or press wanted us to hear. That report is a result their preserverance and determination.
Rating: 
Summary: This is more a painting than a photograph
Review: I found the book well-written, and Ms. Sheehy's telling of the stories of these families' journeys was compelling. She did manage to accurately describe certain aspects of pre- and post- 9/11 Middletown Township. Her prose is vivid & evocative and her social commentary about present-day Middletown as a microcosm of upper middle-class White America is poignant. My problem was that, while probably not diminishing its appeal to the general reader, the book is nevertheless riddled with errors of fact about Middletown's history & and Middletown Township (an area far larger than Middletown) geography. A 4th-generation Middletowner, I left when I was 18 to join the service and have only been back to visit family. The fact that I am an African American, and that my ancestors owned a substantial portion of the land making up Middletown would surely surprise anyone who reads this book, as would the fact that streets are named after our family and a Center for local history & memorabilia bears our name. "The Story of Middletown," a book available in the Middletown Public Library, credits my Great, Great Uncle Clinton with founding this town. The ignoring of the historical African American presence in Middletown starting in the late 1800's left me cold and made me think: isn't this omission also a microcosm of America? In her history of Middletown, Ms. Sheehey either intentionally or inadvertantly committed the same sin of omission our American History books have favored by painting a picture rather than taking a photograph & letting the story she wanted to tell shape some of the facts. Nevertheless, I feel the book is still worth reading as a way to more deeply process this traumatic, life-changing turning point in our country. I have a cousin who made it out of the Twin Towers and I do hope this book proves to be helpful to her. I doubt, though, that it will have as healing an effect for her as Ms. Sheehey would have intended, given the insignificant role African Americans ostensibly play in her history of "Middletown, America," a town one of her black reader's ancestors arguably founded.
Rating:
Summary: In response to the "unmourned" spouse issue
Review: I have read this book and had an "ex" husband die shortly following a divorce after 20 years of marriage. In spite of being "divorced", I found myself identifying with woman after woman as I read these courageous stories - the term is complicated mourning. I have three daughters that suffered along with me. I find the entire issue distasteful and misunderstood. There are very few circumstances in life that warrant wishing someone was dead.
Rating:
Summary: In response to the "unmourned" spouse issue
Review: I have read this book and had an "ex" husband die shortly following a divorce after 20 years of marriage. In spite of being "divorced", I found myself identifying with woman after woman as I read these courageous stories - the term is complicated mourning. I have three daughters that suffered along with me. I find the entire issue distasteful and misunderstood. There are very few circumstances in life that warrant wishing someone was dead.
Rating:
Summary: Riddled with errors
Review: I live in Rumson and attend Holy Cross Church, two of the locales that figure prominently in the book. While Ms. Sheehy's insight into our community is sometimes on target, her casual disregard for the names of local institutions, their locations, the spelling of proper names, and other easily-checked facts makes me suspect the trustworthiness of those facts that I cannot verify. Riverview Medical Center becomes Riverview Hospital and moves from Red Bank into Middletown; The First Presbyterian Church at Red Bank becomes Tower Hill Presbyterian Church and moves from Red Bank (it's part of the name, for heaven's sake) into Middletown; and Fort Monmouth moves from Eatontown into Middletown (I detect a pattern here). The two-mile-long manmade deepwater pier at NWS Earle becomes a strip of land extending into the bay (if it was a strip of land, you wouldn't be able to dock battleships there!) Red Bank is described as a town with no center, when in fact it has been lauded nationwide as an example of how an aging downtown can be revived and prosper. These are only a few of the most egregious errors; there are many others. While only a local may notice or care about these things, the sheer number of them gives me the uneasy sense that Ms. Sheehy had a tale to tell from the start, and that facts could be ignored or massaged (or at least callously overlooked) if they got in the way of the story. A few of these errors turned up in the Vanity Fair article of a year and a half ago that presaged this book. I gave her the benefit of the doubt that the gaffes were the result of deadline pressures, and that her fact-checkers would remedy them by the time the book was released. That obviously didn't happen. As a result, it's hard to trust her reporting or conclusions as a whole.
Rating: 
Summary: Part of the healing
Review: I lived through the events of 9/11 and its aftermath in the town itself. Reading this mostly well-written book (I noticed the errors also) was a form of therapy for me. It helped me to remember and come to terms with my feelings of those times. When the Oklahoma bombing occurred, it was an event that made me sad, but that did not impact me from a personal perspective. 9/11 was a different story, and Ms. Sheehy captured the feelings of those involved in that day and afterwards. I suffered no personal losses, but in a sense was a survivor also. The book helped me to realize that. I also recalled the activities of the FAVOR group, of which I was a member. I was not very active in the group, but was so honored to be involved with that wonderful group of women. So for those who would really like to understand how it was for those living in the township, I would recommend this book highly. And I'd recommend it to those living in the area as a form of catharsis.
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