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Reviews
Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains by Cassie Chambers
eringow's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
carolynf's review
5.0
I put this off for too long thinking it was a dry history of the region. It turned out to be a fascinating memoir of a young public attorney in rural Tennessee, who includes stories from her family's past and present.
Part one is Cassie's childhood and education through high school. We learn about how her mom was the first in her family to graduate high school, which happened in the 90s just a few years before Cassie was born. She tells about the lack of plumbing and heating on the family tobacco farm, the expectation of physical labor from an early age, and the lack of accessible medical care, especially for women. But this is balanced by stories of perseverance, community, and pride.
Part two is Cassie's college years, through multiple institutions in a quest to understand who she is. The author is very hard on her young self's willingness to camouflage and adapt rather consider what she really wants. Part of this section reminded me of Tara Westover's book Educated, particularly how out of place both authors described feeling.
Part three is Cassie returning home to practice as a public attorney, representing mostly people in poverty, mostly women but sometimes men. She describes how the protections of the American legal system actually have a price that makes it inaccessible to many. She also talks about economic changes in the area (the loss of tobacco and mining) and how this contributed to the opioid epidemic, and how environmental hazards like lack of clean drinking water, decades of pesticide use, and an over-reliance on the Dollar Store contributes to poor health in general.
It was an interesting and inspiring read, and I finished it in a single day. I highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to understand this region of the country better.
Part one is Cassie's childhood and education through high school. We learn about how her mom was the first in her family to graduate high school, which happened in the 90s just a few years before Cassie was born. She tells about the lack of plumbing and heating on the family tobacco farm, the expectation of physical labor from an early age, and the lack of accessible medical care, especially for women. But this is balanced by stories of perseverance, community, and pride.
Part two is Cassie's college years, through multiple institutions in a quest to understand who she is. The author is very hard on her young self's willingness to camouflage and adapt rather consider what she really wants. Part of this section reminded me of Tara Westover's book Educated, particularly how out of place both authors described feeling.
Part three is Cassie returning home to practice as a public attorney, representing mostly people in poverty, mostly women but sometimes men. She describes how the protections of the American legal system actually have a price that makes it inaccessible to many. She also talks about economic changes in the area (the loss of tobacco and mining) and how this contributed to the opioid epidemic, and how environmental hazards like lack of clean drinking water, decades of pesticide use, and an over-reliance on the Dollar Store contributes to poor health in general.
It was an interesting and inspiring read, and I finished it in a single day. I highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to understand this region of the country better.
mpetruce's review against another edition
3.0
The rebuttal/counterpoint to Hillbilly Elegy you could say, although this book doesn't exist, I don't think, solely because of that one. But certainly both books are part of the same conversation. Not a lot of ups and downs and bombast in this memoir, which I guess is why she wanted to tell the story of more of the average day-to-day of "Hill Country" and the challenges but also successes of those communities. If you're expecting a book with all the answers and they're answers that everyone will love and agree with, well, forget it. But Chambers is in there doing what she can to improve a place she came from, as opposed to going somewhere else and never looking back. As for the politics mentioned, well, getting into politics and government is one solution to problems and if that's what she did, then that's what she did. Overall, this is a useful and thought-provoking addition to the growing literature about these communities.
Author-narrators aren't always the best, even with their own lived experiences! But Chambers' narration is great here, too (and thank goodness the accents are authentic; a narrator who didn't grow up in this environment no doubt would have a leaned a little too heavily into the accent, and maybe even thrown three or four different parts of Hill Country in there).
Author-narrators aren't always the best, even with their own lived experiences! But Chambers' narration is great here, too (and thank goodness the accents are authentic; a narrator who didn't grow up in this environment no doubt would have a leaned a little too heavily into the accent, and maybe even thrown three or four different parts of Hill Country in there).
msmoodyreader's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
cgroup6's review
5.0
I received this book as an ARC via NetGalley, but the review is my own.
I highly recommend this book. The topic is one I don’t have a particularly strong connection to (other than going to school in the hills of another Appalachian state, WV), but it is fascinating to learn about this micro history through the voice of someone who not only has lived this experience, but can translate it to an experience that I’m familiar with. I enjoyed reading about her (& her family’s) journey. The story was engaging and really the best of what a memoir should be.
I highly recommend this book. The topic is one I don’t have a particularly strong connection to (other than going to school in the hills of another Appalachian state, WV), but it is fascinating to learn about this micro history through the voice of someone who not only has lived this experience, but can translate it to an experience that I’m familiar with. I enjoyed reading about her (& her family’s) journey. The story was engaging and really the best of what a memoir should be.
grubnubble's review
4.0
Hill Women was not what I expected. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that is both a personal memoir and an homage to a place, a community, a culture. I had hoped for more historical and political perspective on the people of Appalachia, but I got much more — a narrative of Cassie’s roots and the stories that make a place a community.
liralen's review
4.0
You don’t go to Owsley County, Kentucky, without a reason. You can’t take a wrong turn and accidentally end up there. It’s miles to the nearest interstate, and there’s no hotel in town. It doesn’t cater to outsiders. (vii)
Chambers' family roots run deep in Owsley County: it's deep Appalachia, somewhere where opportunities are scarce and some houses still have dirt floors—but ingenuity and perseverance and pride make up for a lot. For Chambers and her family, more recent generations have gotten further away from the pull of Owsley County, but this is still something of an elegy to people—women, especially—who have persevered, and persevered, and persevered.
Sometimes outsiders come in and want to save Appalachia. It’s not a bad instinct—I can understand where it comes from. But outsiders who rush into the hills don’t always take the time to see that mountain people are a creative, resourceful lot. They don’t understand that Appalachians can be—should be—partners in the effort to make their lives better. They don’t grasp that, if given the right resources and opportunities, these communities are capable of saving themselves. If there’s one thing that women in these hills know how to do, it’s get things done. (48)
It's an answer to [b:Hillbilly Elegy|27161156|Hillbilly Elegy A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis|J.D. Vance|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1463569814l/27161156._SY75_.jpg|47200486]: more awareness of her own place in and out of it all, more understanding of what keeps people there by choice and of why she both 'got out' and chose to go back in. It reminds me in some ways of [b:Educated|35133922|Educated|Tara Westover|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1506026635l/35133922._SY75_.jpg|53814228] (though...without so much dysfunction), this sense of being outside the bounds of most of society. The book slows a bit in the middle, when Chambers is talking about more of her own education—relevant, but still something of a detour from her family story. I also found the way she talked about the difference between Wellesley and Yale quite sad: there's still a sense that she found Yale more worthy just because...because Yale thinks they're more worthy, basically, and it's full of people who come from money and privilege. (Wellesley also has plenty of people who come from money and privilege, of course, it's just that Yale sees that as more of a selling point.)
But at the end of the day: I'd absolutely recommend this for readers of Educated or [b:Two or Three Things I Know for Sure|91873|Two or Three Things I Know for Sure|Dorothy Allison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347981818l/91873._SY75_.jpg|965422] (or as an alternative to Hillbilly Elegy).
Chambers' family roots run deep in Owsley County: it's deep Appalachia, somewhere where opportunities are scarce and some houses still have dirt floors—but ingenuity and perseverance and pride make up for a lot. For Chambers and her family, more recent generations have gotten further away from the pull of Owsley County, but this is still something of an elegy to people—women, especially—who have persevered, and persevered, and persevered.
Sometimes outsiders come in and want to save Appalachia. It’s not a bad instinct—I can understand where it comes from. But outsiders who rush into the hills don’t always take the time to see that mountain people are a creative, resourceful lot. They don’t understand that Appalachians can be—should be—partners in the effort to make their lives better. They don’t grasp that, if given the right resources and opportunities, these communities are capable of saving themselves. If there’s one thing that women in these hills know how to do, it’s get things done. (48)
It's an answer to [b:Hillbilly Elegy|27161156|Hillbilly Elegy A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis|J.D. Vance|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1463569814l/27161156._SY75_.jpg|47200486]: more awareness of her own place in and out of it all, more understanding of what keeps people there by choice and of why she both 'got out' and chose to go back in. It reminds me in some ways of [b:Educated|35133922|Educated|Tara Westover|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1506026635l/35133922._SY75_.jpg|53814228] (though...without so much dysfunction), this sense of being outside the bounds of most of society. The book slows a bit in the middle, when Chambers is talking about more of her own education—relevant, but still something of a detour from her family story. I also found the way she talked about the difference between Wellesley and Yale quite sad: there's still a sense that she found Yale more worthy just because...because Yale thinks they're more worthy, basically, and it's full of people who come from money and privilege. (Wellesley also has plenty of people who come from money and privilege, of course, it's just that Yale sees that as more of a selling point.)
But at the end of the day: I'd absolutely recommend this for readers of Educated or [b:Two or Three Things I Know for Sure|91873|Two or Three Things I Know for Sure|Dorothy Allison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347981818l/91873._SY75_.jpg|965422] (or as an alternative to Hillbilly Elegy).
kwray1972's review
5.0
Loved that this story focused on the people and their character instead of only focusing on the negatives of poverty. You develop a better understanding of the resilience, love of family, and the mindset of those who were raised in hill country. Family is everything.