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75 reviews for:
Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy
Anthony Harkins, Meredith McCarroll
3.96 AVERAGE
75 reviews for:
Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy
Anthony Harkins, Meredith McCarroll
3.96 AVERAGE
I agree with the premiss of this book, but its substance is kind of a mess. I feel like the editors should have worked with the essayists more directly so that they didn't end up feeling like they were repeating the same points, often using the same quotes to describe the book or the reaction to it. The personal narratives at the end were better, but by that point I just really wanted this book to be over.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Powerful book. An important read for anyone who has Appalachia touching their lives, and a must for all who don't.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
a very well-kept collection of stories, poems, academic analyses, and photographs responding to and commenting on hillbilly elegy. i really appreciated the breadth of responses, most of which call out vance's gross over-generalizations, ignorance of appalachian diversity, and lack of attention to broader economic forces.
slow-paced
I particularly loved the essays included in this compilation. It is an excellent and academic response to a memoir that should not have be generalized out as it was by it's author.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
An amazing collection of academic articles, literary criticism, poetry, photography, and essays. Truly fantastic.
An interesting, informative, and thoughtful (and much more enjoyable) follow up to my reading of Hillbilly Elegy. Im glad to have read it as it validated and focused my uneasy reaction to Hillbilly Elegy.
At times this felt a little repetitive because it was a series of essays that wasn’t edited for theme, but overall it was a heartfelt defence of Vance’s work.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This was a phenomenal read. I loved the variety of perspectives. I love how it was a true response and wasn't just a bashing of Hillbilly Elegy. Several of the essays pointed out what Vance got right as well as what he got wrong. The take homes that I got from this were that a) "Appalachia" is not a monolith and there needs to be more own voices and nuance in mainstream media when discussing it; and b) the contributors did a wonderful job of contesting Vance's sweeping statements and ideas about the region without invalidating his lived experience.
A collection of essays, memoirs, poems, photos...all in response to JD Vance's myopic, self-aggrandizing memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. I was recommended this book so very enthusiastically...and it just left me dissatisfied and...icky...
I was not the only one who had that itch between our shoulder blades. Vance rubbed lots of people, good, knowledgeable, academic, trained folks took exception to his portrayal.
Since the book is a compilation of many submissions, there is no attempt to create an overarching voice. Instead, each voice speaks its own truth...just as Vance feels he spoke his truth.
Important addition to the scholarship and literature of Appalachia. Doubly important now, since Vance is trying to parlay his 'expertise' and his sudden embrace of DJT, to the US Senate.
I was not the only one who had that itch between our shoulder blades. Vance rubbed lots of people, good, knowledgeable, academic, trained folks took exception to his portrayal.
Since the book is a compilation of many submissions, there is no attempt to create an overarching voice. Instead, each voice speaks its own truth...just as Vance feels he spoke his truth.
Important addition to the scholarship and literature of Appalachia. Doubly important now, since Vance is trying to parlay his 'expertise' and his sudden embrace of DJT, to the US Senate.