Appalachian reckoning : a region responds to Hillbilly Elegy /

This impassioned collection of Appalachian regional art, essays, and poetry responds directly to J.D. Vance's bestselling memoir about an impoverished family awash in crassness, violence, and drug abuse. Each writer or photographer seeks to provide either a counterpoint to Vance's story or to demonstrate that not all Appalachians are uneducated hillbillies. Appalachian intellectuals such as T.R.C. Hutton, William H. Turner, and Lisa R. Pruitt delve into intricate stories about race, education, and post-coal migration, exploring both the identity of the white "hillbilly" and the black Appalachians virtually ignored in Elegy. Some essays combine statistics with personal stories of hardship, compassion, and perseverance; others hew to a conversational account of the author's family. Lou Murrey's photograph of diverse people protesting a federal prison in Kentucky and Roger May's stunning portrait of his aunt serve as a striking counterpoint to Elegy's depiction of an apathetic people. Vance's belief that Appalachians committed themselves to failure loses traction when faced with these accounts of historical context, company towns, and current positive developments. As the editors Harkins and McCarroll note, while Vance offers one bleak "window" into the extensive multistate region, this valuable collection shows resilience, hope, and belonging are in Appalachia, too. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Appalachian writers and scholars rebut the "gross simplifications and stereotypes" of J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy (2016).Often cited as a way to understand the working-class voters who helped elect Donald Trump, Hillbilly Elegy has been a longtime bestseller, will soon become an HBO movie, and has made Vance a media expert on Appalachia. Indeed, it is the most widely read book on the region. Now comes this thoughtful and provocative anthology of essays, poems, and photographs arguing for treatment of Appalachia as a "diverse and complex place." Edited by Harkins (History/Western Kentucky Univ.; Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon, 2003) and McCarroll (Writing and Rhetoric/Bowdoin Coll.; Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film, 2018), the book ranges widely in its single focus, with contributors variously attacking, defending, or simply critiquing the book. All deem Hillbilly a biased work reinforcing stereotypes of the region's people (snake handlers, mountain men), as understood by a conservative Kentuckian born into a poor, unstable family who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, attended Yale Law School, and became a venture capitalist. The result, writes Tennessee historian T.R.C. Hutton, is "a Silicon Valley millionaire [who] is now the most popular source for understanding twenty-first century rural poverty." In other pieces, Kentucky sociologist Dwight B. Billings calls the memoir an ad for "capitalist neoliberalism," and California law professor Lisa Pruitt, who is "from hillbilly stock," finds it reminiscent of her childhood but filled with "ill-informed policy prescriptions." Like others, she believes systemic societal problemsnot only personal choice and accountabilityhelp shape regional life. Vance's defenders say he is entitled to his personal story and to his interpretation of his early social environment. Writer Ivy Brashear, a 10th-generation Appalachian, notes that the book lacks class, heart, and warmth. Others offer nuanced considerations of race, sexuality, and drug use.A welcome and valuable resource for anyone studying or writing about this much-maligned region. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.