This Appalachia Life: My Mother Wasn't Trash

[PinkTiger]

68. I just got finished with the book and I had some issues with him, also.

Vance isn't very sympathetic with people who "wrong" him, especially his mother. And I think I agree with another OP, below, that it isn't a great book if you are looking for a policy document; however, the story is interesting in one very special way: if you read it and realize the narrator is unreliable, then you can read between the lines.
This is how I approached it, once I realized that his tale was full of bias and false bravado.
He also reminds me of my baby brother, who has accomplished a great deal in his life, but started out rough and survived because people cared about him. He fails to acknowledge this fact.
He doesn't want his wife and son to know that he narrowly escaped a jail sentence when he was 18, because his sister (me) worked for the local prosecutor and was able to take him before the judge and get his case dismissed if he joined the service.
So he did, and they sent him to college and then to special language schools, and he retired from the USAF as a captain.
Today he lives abroad after selling his business, and plays a lot of golf.
He is a dyed in the wool republican.