Travels in Orkney, Belize, the Everglades, and Greece. "A tour de force of personal narrative. . . . Astonishingly fluid and keenly observant." --The Boston Globe

A childhood shaped by her zestful aunt Nan Dean of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama; a girlhood spent in Oak Ridge ("Atom City"), Tennessee; a journey north to a seedy seaside town where a stripper named Angela the Upside-Down Girl is her first neighbor--these are only some of the geographical and spiritual journeys in this dazzling, seriously funny guide to the art of being human.

Boston has persevered through the bad old days to thrive, and more, to make a kind of statement about the good city. The good city is innovative and fun, it is prosperous, it strives for justice and sustainability, but above all, it is alive. -From the Introduction by Paul Grogan
"The Good City" presents a vivid new profile of Boston through the work of fifteen of the city's finest writers.
Robert Campbell and Jane Holtz Kay on Boston's embrace of lively urban density
James Miller on the city's intellectual history
Jack Beatty on Boston's colorful political past and...