Full of the worst stereotypes about Appalachia and way too self-promoting. His use of his own relatives to try to create this impression of an impoverished Vance who rose from the dregs of society to obtain an Ivy League degree was disgusting.

I have no idea what he was thinking. I wonder if he even read it himself. I got about halfway through it and was tempted to throw it across the room. I struggled through to the end and then threw it in the trash. Sorry, dear brother, but I would not pass this book on to anyone. Nobody I love should have their mind polluted with this garbage.

JD is NOT a "hillbilly". He did NOT grow up in Appalachia. He grew up in southern Ohio, FFS. So did some of my ancestors, and they were most certainly NOT hillbillies, they were Palatine Germans whose families had settled in Virginia and then some of them had joined the westward movement. Some of JD's family may have been transplanted from Appalachia, but by the time it got to him, they were nothing but trailer trash, or what my mother, God rest her soul, would have called "poor white trash". I like what someone called JD---a "shillbilly". And BTW, I heard his original name was John David Bowman, or some such. He must have taken the name Vance from some stepdaddy.

I worked in home health among real Appalachian people in east Tennessee. They would look down their noses at people like JD. They may have been poor, but they were proud. They would give you the shirt off their back, if you asked. They would share what they had---I was often the recipient of goods from gardens, meals at their tables no matter how poor, gifts of homemade candy at Christmas or sausage at "hog killin' time", etc. I used to give a lot of the produce to other patients who weren't lucky enough to have gardens, but always had plenty left over to take home. I miss those folks.

There’s a huge difference between celebrating the customs of a proud people and exploiting those people for personal aggrandizement. Vance was not celebrating strengths, he was exploiting people.

which is my point.

I never read the book, but I did try to watch the mini-series that was based on Vance's book. At the time I had no idea of his political leaning, but I really hated the stories he told about his family. I think I bailed after the 3rd or 4th episode.

If you get a chance, try reading books by Barbara Kingsolver. She is a wonderful novelist who is proud of her Appalachian upbringing. Not all of her stories are about Appalachia, at least one book takes place in Arizona, and another is about a family of American missionaries in Africa. But her stories have a lot of heart and the characters are real people.

Checked it out because it’s a cookbook, but it’s also a memoir of her family’s history as Black Appalachians. It was really interesting.

I too grew up in a poorer rural community, but not near as bad as Mississippi. I have many fond memories of our large kitchen and the great variety of food.

“This hillbilly needs no elegy.” I don’t think they can stand Vance.