Review: Ohio Town: A Portrait of Xenia, Ohio

Ohio Town: A Portrait of Xenia, Ohio by Helen Hooven Santmyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Having since the disturbing film Gummo , I have often wondered about the Xenia, Ohio from before the April 3, 1974 F5 tornadocut a path directly through the middle of Xenia during the 1974 Super Outbreak, the second largest series of tornadoes in recorded history, and destroyed almost half of the city's buildings. This does that, first published 1956 and looking back to a Nineteenth Century "'60s" and "'70s" and when authored recalled grandfatherly denizens that were Civil War veterans. Wistful, nostalgic without feeling overly romanticized although it does recall a small-town, quaint, patriotic, and religious ideal. Beautiful, evocative descriptions of buildings, neighborhoods, and neighbors.

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