Product Description

"A writer good enough to restore your faith in fiction."
THE NEW YORK TIMES
It is only a week in the life of a 35-year old bachelor school teacher in a small Minnesota town. But it is an extraodinary week, filled with the poetry of living, the sweetness of expectation, and the glory of surprise that can change a life forever....
"Absolutely smashing....An altogether successful work, witty, intelligent, compassionate."
THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38651 in Books
• Published on: 1986-07-12
• Released on: 1986-07-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 304 pages

From the Publisher
Finding out that Ballantine published this book was a very nice surprise for me. I first read Jon Hassler's Staggerford when I was a sophomore or a junior in high school. I'm not totally sure which. Talking about this book with a friend was one of the first conversations I ever had when I thought, "Wow, she gets it too!" I've read just about all of his novels since. No one captures the small town subtleties - the quirks and the quiet dignity - with as much warmth as Jon Hassler. My friend eventually moved to Minneapolis and has seen the author about a dozen times. I don't think she moved to Minnesota just to stalk Mr. Hassler, but it is a nice plus for her. Working in the office, I've read his books before they've been published and seen the comments from his editor and his letters as the manuscript become a final novel. I've never actually spoken to him though which, in a way, I like. You see, I love all of his books but when I think of Jon Hassler, I picture the warm, quiet, intelligent gentleman and slightly awkward and anxious observer- that is Miles Pruitt, the hero of Staggerford. I'm sure it's not accurate - what author is just like his protagonist? - but I like thinking of him just like that.
-S. Gutierrez, Assistant editor

From the Inside Flap
"A writer good enough to restore your faith in fiction."
THE NEW YORK TIMES
It is only a week in the life of a 35-year old bachelor school teacher in a small Minnesota town. But it is an extraodinary week, filled with the poetry of living, the sweetness of expectation, and the glory of surprise that can change a life forever....
"Absolutely smashing....An altogether successful work, witty, intelligent, compassionate."
THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

Customer Reviews

The Book that Changed the Way I Thought about Books.
I first read Staggerford because I had friends who were students of Mr. Hassler at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. They said such wonderful things about him, that I decided to take a look at his first novel. By the time I finished it Staggerford had affected me so profoundly that I couldn't read another book for weeks. Only once before had I been so exhilrated (and disturbed at the same time) by a story: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Why is Staggerford so affecting? Because the characters are not small-town hicks living in an isolated, backwards community. They have real ambitions, real quirks, and real drama in their lives. What is so remarkable about them is that while they are not ordinary people, they are also just like us, which is a refreshing paradox to find in fiction.

Mr. Hassler's genuine affection for his characters is not sappy or syrupy, but is amusingly tempered by a small-town practicality that allows him to "tell it like it is."

If you are looking for other Hassler books to dig into, I'd like to recommend something other than A Grand Journey and Dear James. Although I greatly enjoyed those two books, I'd like to suggest Rookery Blues and The Dean's List as examples of Mr. Hassler's incredible ability to build an amusing, unusual, and utterly real small town community.

A charming story of smal-town life in the midwest.
I feel compelled to add another review of this book, since the only one available to Amazon viewers is such a negative one. I started reading this book while house-sitting for friends years ago. I barely got into it when we had to leave and, over time, I forgot the title and spent the next seven years wondering about the characters and how everything turned out. Eventually, I ran across another book by Jon Hassler and recognized the writing style. It was a delight to find and reread "Staggerford" and I feel its story applies to today's society as well as it did in 1974. If you are looking for a book with nuclear submarines, car crashes and exploding helicopters, skip "Staggerford," but if you enjoy a great read about slightly eccentric characters living in a small town soup, then I recommend it.

staggerford has become my standard book recommendation
Jon Hassler's books are deceptively simple, containing wonderful writing about everyday people in small-town Minnesota. I say that the writing is deceptive, because in spite of the settings and protagonists, the books have none of the hallmarks of, well, hallmark. The humor is abundant, but not folksy, the subject matter is life and sometimes death, without being melodramatic or contrived. Staggerford, his first novel, is a great place to start. I've given Staggerford to at least 30 people as part of a birthday or wedding or Christmas gift, and all of the recipients -- of many different reading preferences -- have thoroughly enjoyed it and most have gone on to read more Hassler. While it may not change your life, it's a perfect book for a summer's day on the porch with an iced-tea or a winter's night with hot chocolate.