Rating: 
Summary: An absolute gem of a book
Review: Twenty years ago, the Pretenders had a marvelous song about semirural Ohio being plowed over and replaced by shopping malls - "and Muzak filled the air from Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls." 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 finally 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 though it's tough to give five stars to something so intimate and personal, that is what I must do. It 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 (but sparing no one, 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.
| 
