Hillbilly Elegy

15 December 2020, 05:19 PM

Mary Anna

Hillbilly Elegy

quote:
Originally posted by CHAS:
I thought the help was either, "It was just sufficiently sugar-coated for upper-middle-class white women to chat about in book clubs." or that it would make me feel shameful about something I did as a youth.

Honestly--both of those are true for me, too.

But if somebody's going to make me feel bad about myself, I prefer it to be someone who writes like Faulkner.

15 December 2020, 06:52 PM

CHAS

quote:
Originally posted by Mary Anna:

But if somebody's going to make me feel bad about myself, I prefer it to be someone who writes like Faulkner.

15 December 2020, 08:18 PM

Steve Miller

What struck me about Hillbilly Elegy is that much of the time they lived in Ohio they were not poor. His grandfather had a good job at the (Alcoa?) plant, they bought new house, they bought new cars. His Mom was a nurse and presumably made good money as well.

There is more to this than poverty.

15 December 2020, 11:56 PM

Steve Miller

quote:
Originally posted by Mary Anna:
quote:
Originally posted by Steve Miller:
quote:
Originally posted by Mary Anna:
My friends from Appalachia loathed the book and the movie, going so far as to post alternative books that they feel give a better picture of the area.

I'd like to see that list if you still have it.

Thanks!

One of my friends posted a link to this list. She's an English professor from Kentucky whose mother's family was from way back in the hills.

https://bookriot.com/books-about-appalachia/

Also, one of my MFA classmates ' father, Ron Rash, is the Parris Distinguished Professor in Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University. He is a very distinguished writer of both fiction and poetry, often about Appalachia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Rash

Thank you!