Idyll Banter: Weekly Excursions to a Very Small Town

By Chris Bohjalian

In March 1986, while living in Brooklyn, Chris Bohjalian and his wife were cab-napped on a Saturday night and taken on a forty-five-minute joy ride in which the driver ignored all traffic lights and stop signs. Around midnight he deposited the young couple on a near-deserted street, where police officers were about to storm a crack house. Bohjalian and his wife were told to hit the ground for their own protection. While lying on the pavement, Bohjalian's wife suggested that perhaps it was time to move to New England.

Months later they traded in their co-op in Brooklyn for a century-old Victorian house in Lincoln, Vermont (population 975), and Bohjalian began chronicling life in that town in a wide variety of magazine essays and in his newspaper column, "Idyll Banter."

These pieces, written weekly for twelve years and collected here for the first time, serve as a diary of both this writer's life and how America has been transformed in the last decade. Rich with idiosyncratic universals that come with being a parent, a child, and a spouse, Chris Bohjalian's personal observations are a reflection of our own common experience.

"Chris Bohjalian is a terrific columnist—thoughtful and thought-provoking. Just like me! No, really, this guy is good." —Dave Barry, author of Boogers Are My Beat


“The best book I’ve ever read about life in a contemporary village. There’s no doubt that Chris Bohjalian has established himself as one of America’s finest, most thoughtful, and most humane writers.”
—Howard Frank Mosher

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 16, 2003
• ISBN: 9781400080717

Chris Bohjalian

Chris Bohjalian is the author of twelve novels, including the New York Times bestsellers, Secrets of Eden, The Double Bind, Skeletons at the Feast, and Midwives.  His work has been translated into twenty-six languages.  He lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter.   Visit him at www.chrisbohjalian.com or www.facebook.com .

Reviews for Idyll Banter

[katiekrug · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Eh, this one really didn’t do it for me. I have read and enjoyed a couple of Bohjalian’s novels and have a few more TBR, so when I saw this collection of his columns for a newspaper in Burlington, Vermont, I thought it would be a good choice. Not so much… The first problem was the reading. Bohjalian has a strange, awkward pacing that I found off-putting, especially when he ended every essay as if the last few words were separated by periods. It. Was. Very. Annoying.Also bothersome was the self-congratulatory tone. Why, look at me! I moved from New York City to the wilds of Vermont and what fun I’ve had learning the ways of the natives! Being from a small town, I loathe this kind of patronizing condescension. Bohjalian takes great delight in recording the eccentricities of small town folk who name their cows, shop at the general store, hunt deer, and participate in civic activities. I got the sense that he wanted desperately to fit into this community but by continually drawing attention to its “otherness” (in his eyes), I don’t see how he ever could.And finally, I don’t think Bohjalian is as funny as he would like to think. He continually employed a faux self-deprecating humor that fell flat. And there was always a pause after one of these “humorous” asides, as if he was giving the listener a chance to finish laughing. I don’t think I chuckled once through the whole thing, much less laughed.

[sweetiegherkin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a collection of newspaper columns that Bohjalian wrote about his transition from life in the city to life in a small town in Vermont. It's an entertaining read, but nothing particularly noteworthy. I prefer his fiction myself.

[mckait · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a collection of columns written both for his local small town newspaper in Vermont, and for the Boston Globe by novel writer Chris Bohjalian. I found the book to be an entertaining and easy read. Here you will find stories about the town, his neighbors, family, pets and friends. Small town living will often provide us with good "character" stories. I live in a small town and have told a few of my own. Do not be fooled into thinking this is another of his novels, it is a completely different Bohjalian from the author of Midwives, but just as entertaining.

[miyurose_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this collection of articles/essays/whatever you want to call them. I'm a fan of "author's notes", as I think they give an idea of the author's true voice -- what they're really like. After reading this, I feel like Bohjalian is someone that you could sit down and chat with and completely relate to. Some of it may be that I grew up in a small town like Lincoln, so I can draw some familiar comfort from the stories. I think that reading this will make me read his future books with a different eye.