Seattle lawyer Weston grew up in the small Idaho mining town of Kellogg. This is her personal memoir of the town in the 1950s. It is also a memoir of the town and, by extension, a thousand other small one company towns in America. Kellogg was homogenous, rural and conservative. Weston interviewed old friends and strangers about life there. She also researched town records for the early history of the town and the lead and silver mine. The Red Scare for Kellogg residents was real and affected the establishment of a union for the mine workers. Her role in ending a debilitating strike was a pivotal moment in Weston's early life. She doesn't hide the bigotry and xenophobia of Kellogg but emphasizes individual stories of basically decent people. She lets the subjects of her interviews speak with few comments. Her prose is restrained with little embellishment, rather in the style of Thorton Wilder and it suits the subject. An epilogue tells of Kellogg today, the mine closed as an environmental hazard. For better or worse, Kellogg is changed and this memoir is almost the only record of the way it was. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)