Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, WASPy social clubs, and preposterously expensive real estate – all of these combine to make Concord, Mass. a form of hallowed ground to a certain kind of status-seeker. Sarah Payne Stuart grew up in Concord and thought she'd escaped, yet as a mother felt a strange longing to make a life for her children there. This tongue-in-cheek memoir about Stuart's efforts to make peace with Concord is a very clever piece of social satire. You can see the Monitor's review of "Perfectly Miserable" here.
