(1/7/2020)
Hill Women is a memoir about life in and around Appalachia, especially focused on the author, Cassie Chambers, and her mother and grandmother. Her memoir compares the lives of her grandmother (with very little education, who met her 30-something-year-old husband when she was a young teenager,) to her mother (who fought for a local college education while married and raising a baby,) to Cassie herself (an Ivy League graduate and Harvard lawyer.)
The author emphasizes the pride of the older generations in Appalachia, an area known for both extreme poverty and a strong work ethic. Later in the book, she broaches the opioid epidemic and the 2016 presidential election, discussing the negative effects of both, especially in this specific region.
While I enjoyed this book and liked learning about a different part of the country, I wish the author had included even more personal stories about the women’s history, as those stories are the strongest part of the book and what makes it special. It was interesting learning about the work the author did to improve her situation and the situation of too many domestic violence victims in Kentucky, but that part could almost have been its own separate book. I really wanted more about life in Appalachia itself.
Disclaimer: I received a free arc from NetGalley and Ballantine Books in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.