Instruct: Classify a given review into positive or negative sentiment.
Query: A charming story of smal-town life in the midwest.

I feel compelled to add another review of this book, since the only one available to Amazon viewers is such a negative one. I started reading this book while house-sitting for friends years ago. I barely got into it when we had to leave and, over time, I forgot the title and spent the next seven years wondering about the characters and how everything turned out. Eventually, I ran across another book by Jon Hassler and recognized the writing style. It was a delight to find and reread "Staggerford" and I feel its story applies to today's society as well as it did in 1974. If you are looking for a book with nuclear submarines, car crashes and exploding helicopters, skip "Staggerford," but if you enjoy a great read about slightly eccentric characters living in a small town soup, then I recommend it.