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Books Set in Your Town

ImaginalDisc

Penultimate Amazing
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The library at school was liquidating some excess inventory, so I bought a copy of The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everything, by John D. MacDonald for $0.25 to give to a friend. I mentioned it's set in Miami Beach, and she said she'd never read a sci-fi book set in Miami Beach.

Londonites, New Yorkers, and y'all in California have it easy. Does anyone have any favorite books set in their own town?
 
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well "Our Town" the play is based in Peterborough NH which is down the road.

Pretty much still just like the play, only richer people living there!

The town where I work, Brattleboro Vermont has a whole series of books (and now books based on towns close by) by Archer Mayor. I highly reccomend these books (most books stores carry his detective novels).

It's fun to read about someplace you KNOW. But it's funny as the locals get upset when he refers to someplace as "seedy" or "run down" and trust me, it usually really is!

I think he called Brattleboro "the doormat where all the scum get left when they come into Vermont". Archer Mayor taught me CPR. He's an EMT and part time cop, even though his books have made him rather well to do. A very nice man.
 
The classic Canadian TV show The Beachcombers is set in Gibbon's Landing, which isn't far from here.
 
Lots of books have been set, wholly or partially, in York. The most recent ones that spring to mind are Jonathan Strange and Mr Morrell by Susanna Clarke, Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson and The Sweetest Thing by Fiona Shaw. I'm fairly sure there's also a series of detective novels set in the city.
 
One of Tom Clancy's book, either Debt of Honor or Executive Orders, has the two CIA hit men driving on I-95 through Springfield, Virginia, where I used to live.

The first of Bruce Catton's three-part history of the Army of the Potomac, Mr. Lincoln's Army, describes the aftermath of the Second Battle of Manassas (AKA Bull Run), telling how the Confederates had burned a bridge going over Pohick Creek in Burke Station. Burke Station (now known simply as Burke) is the next town over from Springfield. And Pohick Creek ran through my back yard in Springfield.
 
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Not a book, but most of the action in the 1953 version of War of the Worlds took place in the fields where my city didn't yet exist, east of LA.

And most of Snow Crash happened within 5 miles of my home... (Fed-land is right near UCLA!)
 
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Most of Anne Tyler's books.

James Michener did most of his research for Chesapeake at my library. And a fine gentleman he was.

One of Tom Clancy's books names my library as a great place to make a drug buy. We don't like him.

The Fifty Minute Hour, which is non-fiction by Robert Lindner, better known for writing Rebel Without a Cause, is also set in Baltimore.
 
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Dreamcatcher by Stephen King had the finale at the Quabbin reservoir, which was in my neck of the woods growing up.
 
"Our Town" is set in your town (or close enough?) You win this thread.
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Born and raised in Salinas, CA

Most of John Steinbeck's work is about my area. "The Red Pony" was about a farm across town, and of course Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden are about the people in my area. Several Salinas families were used in his works (names changed but everyone knew who he was referring to). "Cannery Row" is a real place, I eat pizza religiously every Sunday just a few blocks away. Excellent place to take a date by the way.

I live nearby his home and the Steinbeck museum. He is required reading for all schools, my kids can't stand his writing as he is very descriptive.

So I guess I win?

Susan
 
Not a book, but a play: Long Day's Journey Into Night takes place, semi-autobiographically, in New London.
 
Ah, St. Louis, the favorite of authors...... Let's see, I can't think of any that I might call favorites; can't hardly think of any at all. White Palace.... Nope, can't think of any more.
 
Poodle Springs was (more-or-less) set in Palm Springs, but not by name.

The Five Red Herrings was set in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, which is where my parents live.
 
Although I've never read any of them, Lovecraft has written stories that take place in Providence.
 
"Girl with a pearl earring" was set in Delft, where I lived for a while. I
knew it was going to be a girly book, but it did have Vermeer in it and
was set in the Dutch Republic. I was a bit miffed that the much-hyped
"meticulous reconstruction of the period" was obviously all lifted out
of Simon Schama's "The Embarrassment of riches", though.
 
There's so many books set in my town that someone is maintaining a Wikipedia List. In addition some of Robert Frost's poetry is set in Ann Arbor, but I couldn't find any lists. (Some stuff was written here and locals debate whether or not a particular clock tower was the one he had in mind.)
 
Ordinary People by Judith Guest.

A great novel set in a town just a few miles from mine. Even the movie version was filmed there.
 
The Hobbit is set in my village, as is the start and end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Beat that.
 
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