Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore

by Ron Powers

Ron Powers' hometown is Hannibal, Missouri, home of Mark Twain, and therefore birthplace of our image of boyhood itself. Powers returns to Hannibal to chronicle the horrific story of two killings, both committed by minors, and the trials that followed. Seamlessly weaving the narrative of the events in Hannibal with the national withering of the very concept of childhood, Powers exposes a fragmented adult society where children are left adrift, transforming isolation into violence.

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore is a powerful, disturbing, and eye-opening dispatch from the homefront that will take its place alongside the works of Antony Lucas, Robert Coles, and Tracy Kidder.

Genres: Crime, Nonfiction, True Crime

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Ron Powers (born 1941) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, novelist, and non-fiction writer. His face include White Town Drowsing: Journeys to Hannibal, Dangerous Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark Twain, and Mark Twain: A Life. With James Bradley, he co-wrote the 2000 #1 New York Times Bestseller Flags of Our Fathers.

Powers won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1973 for his critical writing as TV-radio-columnist for Chicago Sun-Times about television during 1972. He was the first television critic to win the Pulitzer Prize.

In 1985, Powers won an Emmy Award for his work on CBS News Sunday Morning.

Powers was born in 1941 in Hannibal, Missouri — Mark Twain's hometown. Hannibal was influential in much of Powers' writing — as the subject of his book White Town Drowsing, as the location of the two true-life murders that are the subject of Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore, and as the home of Mark Twain. Powers has said that his fascination with Twain — the subject of two of his books — began in childhood:

"When I was a little boy in Hannibal, he was a mystic figure to me. His pictures and books and images were all over (my friend) Dulany Winkler's house, and I spent a lot of time there. I just wanted to reach out and touch him. Eventually I was able to."

In addition to writing, Powers has taught for the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Salzburg Seminar in Salzburg, Austria, and at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont.

Powers is married and has two sons. He currently resides in Castleton, Vermont.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books ever.

[Koren · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many layers to this book. I started it thinking it was a true crime book, but the crimes that happened are just a small part of the book. The author grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, the hometown of Mark Twain. Within six weeks two murders happened in Hannibal by teenagers. The author decides to return to his hometown to explore how Hannibal had changed from the time of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn to his own teenage years in the town to the current state of affairs of the town. Like most small towns, Hannibal has not aged well. The book is mostly a memoir of the author and very little about the crimes. I would have liked to have seen more investigation into the crimes themselves and the backgrounds of the teenage criminals and their families, but otherwise, there is much food for thought in this book, with the main idea is that times have changed and not necessarily for the better.

[Phil Overeem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sobering, but certainly not surprising if you are a teacher and/or a Missourian. I love the way Powers weaves Twain's perceptions of childhood, Hannibal, and society with what all three have come down to at the end of the 20th century, while at the same time weaving the fate of his pro/antagonists with a personal tragedy of his own.

[Kristal Stidham]

Mark Twain spent thirteen of his formative young years in Hannibal, Missouri and wrote his Tom & Huck tales with the town in mind. The sociologist/historian Ron Powers also grew up in Hannibal and – after learning there had been two murders committed by teens within six weeks in “America’s Home Town” – went back to see what had changed.



The answer is: Everything has changed, many times over.



Ron Powers is a prolific author with many non-fiction books to his credit, including two biographies of Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain. He neatly weaves Twain’s life and literature into this narrative by subtly comparing and contrasting it to his own experiences and then to that of modern Hannibal residents.



I learned a lot about Mark Twain and Hannibal, but I was equally interested in the general history of Missouri itself – a state I’m just passing through for the third time. I also really identified with the sorrow of seeing the small town of your youth morph into something you hardly recognize. Powers offers some compelling arguments about why the small towns are dying and it looks like it’s going to continue.



Most disturbing is the overwhelming evidence that the adolescent experience has changed for the worse. This is a trend that nobody can deny and it makes me glad that I’m not trying to raise kids in that mess out there.



Overall, I liked the book but I have two major complaints. (1) Without apology, Powers reprints long transcriptions of the tape-recorded interviews he conducted with all of the major characters. Yes, it helps you get a feel for how a conversation actually unfolded, but I could do without half of the rambling. And (2) Powers is a wee bit over-dramatic in his auto-biographic bits. Otherwise, this is a “thumbs up”.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting contemplation on the state of youth and the dissolution of a sense of community in America. Focuses on murders committed in Hannibal, Missouri. Ties in his thoughts with autobiographical detail and memories from his childhood in 50's Hannibal and the writing of the city's mostnotable historical figure (Mark Twain). There were some really good insights, but I felt the book was poorly edited.

[Barney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harrowing and sad.