Product Description
Mass Market Paperback copyright 1986, 12th printing 1993 with 292 pgs. The widely praised story of three unlikely traveling companions from a small Miinesota town. "A novel to restore your faith in humanit." L.A. Times ... Read more

Product Description
This is a a long-lived literary journal, that "leans west" in spirit, but publishes esisting and emerging writers from across the country whose works refelect a strong sense of iimage, connection to the land, and character. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Small Town America Rediscovered
I have read three of Jon Hassler's novels and I consider this the best of the lot. The book succeeds in capturing the character and personality of small town America. The characters in the novel are interesting and they all play a significant role in the development of the plot. Hassler brings to life the challenges a family faces in the move from the privacy afforded by a metropolitan area to a small town where they find themselves the topic of conversation and rumor. The change places stresses on all family members and their reactions to it are well handled by the author. This is a classically great novel.

R. Thomas Roe, Author of The Gaelic Letters

Small town mirror
Since I live near a small town (I'd never live in one).I enjoyed Hassler's characters and their struggle with right and wrong.I especially liked his revelations about the two Christian denominations and their unChristlike behavior.

WELL WORTH MY TIME
VERY FEW WRITERS CAN GRAB MY ATTENTION ON THE FIRST PAGE BUT JON HASSLER CERTAINLY CAN.READING HIS BOOKS ARE PURE PLEASURE FROM START TO FINISH.
I MOVED FROM THE BIG CITY TO A SMALL TOWN ABOUT 30 YEARS AGO SO I CAN RELATE TO WHAT THE CHARACTERS IN THIS BOOK ARE EXPERIENCING.MR HASSLER HAS AN UNDERSTANDING OF SMALL TOWN LIFE AND IS A MASTER AT TELLING A STORY. I HAVE READ MOST OF HIS BOOKS AND AM SADDENED BY THE NEWS OF HIS DEATHIN 2008. I ONLY WISH HE HAD WRITTEN MORE.

Small town life...
I have many different ways of rating a book; writing style, emotional impact, what it has taught me, etc.
Although I have read quite a few good novels this past year I think Jon Hassler's Grand Opening has been my favorite despite the fact there was really nothing spectacular in the style of writing. There was something very real about this book. It's the perfect portrayal of how certain individuals will just never be accepted into small town life. I have grown up in small towns all my life and have experienced this treatment because my family was never one for participating in small-town politics. It also didn't help matters that my mom was a "big city girl" from Minneapolis, MN. It's hard to be accepted in a small town unless you were born there, but really...even the people who are born there rarely make the cut themselves.

This book is full of bad things happening to good people. It's also full of good people having not-so-good thoughts and being hard on themselves for it. The beauty of Catholic guilt is well reflected in the character of Brendan.

The book had me split the entire time; I loved it for it's realism, yet I hated it because it wasn't an escape for me. People generally read to escape from the issues of daily life, yet this book paralleled the small town behavior I have viewed my entire life.

An Engrossing Look At Small Town Life
GRAND OPENING is like taking a step back in time to 1944 and makes the reader both want to return to a simpler place and time while also being glad that times have changed and we don't have to live in Hassler's fictional town. In the book we meet the Foster family: Hank and Catherine and their son Brendan and Catherine's father. The family is staunchly Catholic and moves to the small town of Plum to open a grocery store. They soon discover that the town is evenly split between Catholics and Lutherans, neither of whom will socialize with the other. They also learn that small the politics of small town life are not always easy to navigate and that harsh judgments rarely go away. We see innocence in Brendan who loves his new home, and we see some quirks from the grandfather that can be amusing. We also meet a group of interesting characters: Wallace Flint, a man who is more disturbed than he appears; Dodger Hicks, a young man with few chances or saving graces in his life; Fr. O'Day, the parish priest without the finesse of Bing Crosby's famous Fr. O'Malley; Paul Dimmitburg, the son of the Lutheran minister taking a leave from his seminary studies; and Mrs. Brask, the mayor's wife and the worst kind of snob imaginable.

Hassler has a gift for creating good characters and he presents a slice of life in this novel that is both pleasant and dark. There are conflicts throughout the book, both large and small. Hassler does not immediately throw the reader into controversy as some writers do. Instead he brings the reader into the town itself and sets the reader on firm ground, and then the conflicts and tensions begin. It's almost as if we're being transported back to 1944 and we've moved to Plum. Hassler also doe a good job at creating a small Midwestern town at the end of World War II, keeping the historical circumstances in mind while not allowing World War II to envelope the entire story.

This book will be enjoyed by many of Jon Hassler's fans, and is a great introduction to the works of an enjoyable writer.
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