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I enjoyed the homey feeling that McLean brings with his chats to the people of the various small towns he visits. Most are longtime residents of each particular town and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. In between the conversations which are related, many anecdotes and interesting facts are told, some which involve the history of our country. Some of the towns I have visited myself and I can agree with McLean's impressions but without the way he skillfully gets people to talk about themselves, their friends and their town, I would never have known most of the fascinating details.

I did find, however, that the book wasn't one that I wanted to read straight through all at once. Since I started it, I have put it aside several times to read other books. Due to the nature of the book I didn't have the same pull to keep reading that I do with a mystery, for instance, but I am glad that I kept picking it up again and finally finished it. The last two locations, Nakusp, British Columbia and Ferryland, Newfoundland are places I wouldn't want to have missed reading about.

I enjoy visits to large cities occasionally but generally they overwhelm me. All the towns chosen by McLean typify the sort of town I like to visit as I like the friendliness often found in them. As it was written in 1992 some things will have changed but not the welcoming nature of small town people. I would recommend the book to my Canadian friends as it relates so much about our country and I also recommend it to non-Canadians as it reveals so much about the country and its residents.