Growing Up in a Small Town by Ryan Uytdewilligen

by Ryan Uytdewilligen

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6 books

I grew up on a farm outside a small Canadian prairie town. I complained that I was bored. I complained I was lonely. I complained I was in the middle of nowhere. As I get older, I realise more and more how distinct, unique, and wonderful it was. My collection of book choices reflects both my desire to revisit my childhood through fiction by hearing other small-town stories while also learning about embracing the past.

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The Last Picture Show

Larry McMurtry, 2011

A wonderful book adapted to an even more wonderful movie, this story features a grew of rural high school graduates who swap partners and debate whether (or even how) to leave their dusty home down. Dramatic yet often funny, this book is set in 1950s Texas, but there are so many universal elements that feel true to today.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee, 2014

A classic if there ever was one, the story is one thing (a young girl coming of age amid racial prejudice in the 1930s south), but Lee’s description is another. The more I re-read, the more I fall in love with the world and the town of Maycomb that she creates. Much time is spent on illustrating the happenings of a small town. It is like a perfect painting. You can smell the air and feel the streets.

Empire Falls

Richard Russo, 2011

A small-town story set in an even smaller setting – a local diner – this book is a thick but tasty treat when it comes to messy relationships, changing schools, and the importance of the local diner. Powerful and dramatic at times, Richard Russo has looked at small New England downs time and time again, and here, you feel like a lucky little fly in the wall as his rich characters live out their very realistic lives.

A Prayer for Owen Meany

John Irving, 2002

John Irving is a master at creating shaggy dog stories about unusual characters and lengthy lives. Here, two young boys navigate friendship as one of them, an extremely small but charismatic child named Owen Meany, searches for purpose and acceptance in a small and innocent community. It is the relatable characters that make the story feel so relatable.

The Tender Bar

J. R. Moehringer, 2005

Not so much a small town, but a small world, this electric memoir about a writing finding his voice within the walls of a tavern is so relatable it hurts. As Moehringer comes of age, he is guided by small town bar flies and family members who remain exactly where he last found them as he tries to make a name for himself in NYC. Every time he comes back, he grows or provides the reader with another nugget of joy.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Bill Bryson, 2007

Bryson recollects his childhood growing up in 1950s Iowa with such a distinct and engaging memory, you can’t help but be jealous for what you may have missed out on. Equal parts memoir, fictional superhero fantasy, and essays on the joys and oddities of 1950s America, the book is a riveting piece of nostalgia that is sure to entertain.