This is yet another great read I “discovered” via ANUW, the Association of Northwestern University Women book club that I am a member of, by way of my employment at Northwestern University. I was a little leery, as last year the book club selections were pretty heavy to include J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. At first thought, his book has many parallels to hers, so I wasn’t that interested in reading more of the same. Vance of Elegy grew up in rural Appalachia and details the toll poverty took on his family, and that whole part of the country, as well as his rise up and out. Smarsh’s story has a similar ark, but very different conclusions and I am very happy to have read it.
Sarah Smarsh grew up in the farmland of Kansas in an America that for many of us, doesn’t even exist. She details her upbringing and family that by my definition would be colorful at best, absentee at worst, but for her they represent the foundation of her life, and all that she knew in her formative years. She is honest about them without being critical, speculative rather than judgmental. As I mentioned I found it really interesting to think about as a companion to Hillbilly Elegy (which, sidebar, if you ever end up working at Northwestern ANUW is one of my favorite book clubs I have ever been in).
Whereas Vance’s conclusion of his upbringing seems to be if he could bootstrap it out of there, others can too, Smarsh’s memoir has a different conclusion. She doesn’t draw any conclusions or judgments for those that don’t “make it out” and in fact ponders on what exactly making it out means. What was she running from, and to? Instead, her memoir is more so a love letter to her family and past, as rough as some elements more. Her story is also a takedown of the many systems in modern American that are broken, or if not broken, exist and chug along to keep the rich rich, and the poor poor, unbeknownst to many of them.
This book will provide much fruitful discussion, and it’ll be one I’m recommending to those looking for a good bit of non-fiction by a great writer.
