https://columnists.thewindhameagle.com/2024/12/andy-young-three-memorable-memoirs.html

Published online in Windham Eagle

December 13, 2024

"But the best memoir I’ve read this month is One Stop West of Hinsdale, by Valerie Kuhn Reid. Hers is a clearly-told, courageous, unembellished story involving coming of age amidst a family in crisis, the author’s continually-evolving self-awareness, and her ultimately coming to grips with an intensely traumatic past. Her clear, articulate prose, which is presented as a letter to her long-dead father, is rich in detail. The book clearly required extensive research, decades of self-analysis, and plenty of processing of past events that were in many cases undoubtedly as painful to recall as they were to originally experience.

Full disclosure: Ms. Reid is a friend of mine. However, even If I knew nothing about her, I’d recommend One Stop West of Hinsdale to anyone looking for a relatable, eloquently-told, painfully honest story of a genuine human being’s ongoing journey of self-discovery.

Want to get rich quick? Go purchase some random item for what you think it’s worth, then turn around and sell it for what I think Ms. Reid and her wonderful book are worth.

Andy Young,

Author, Life in 600 Words

It's a poignant, heartfelt, and sometimes heart-breaking coming-of-age (and wisdom) story, framed as a mystery and delivered in a beautifully written love-hate letter to the author’s once-loving, then estranged, now dead father. It’s ostensibly a tale of a fractured family, torn apart by mental illness, addiction, and tectonic cultural change. And though it deals frankly with loss and pain and grief, it also radiates with joy, love, discovery, growth, and redemption.

Reid’s book is a paean to the human condition, saddled by pain and sadness and loss, but also sanctified by love, hope, and forgiveness. A “must read.”

Steven Price, Author of Life in Maine & Other Absurdities

Editor, Where Maine Reads