Heartland

During Sarah Smarsh s turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, the forces of cyclical poverty and the country s changing economic policies solidified her family s place among the working poor By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves, Smarsh challenges us to look closely at the class divide in our country and examine the myths about people thought to be less because they earn less Her personal history affirms the corrosive impact intergenerational poverty can have on individuals, families, and communities, and she explores this idea as lived experience, metaphor, and level of consciousness Smarsh was born a fifth generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side and the product of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side Through her experiences growing up as the daughter of a dissatisfied young mother and raised predominantly by her grandmother on a farm thirty miles west of Wichita, we are given a unique and essential look into the lives of poor and working class Americans living in the heartland Combining memoir with powerful analysis and cultural commentary, Heartland is an uncompromising look at class, identity, and the particular perils of having less in a country known for its excess. Best Read Heartland [ by ] Sarah Smarsh [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr Real Rating 2.5 of fiveTODAY, 9 JUNE 2019 available on Kindle for 2.99DNF 41%Entirely because the book is written as though to the author s unborn nay, unconceived daughter It s simply too cutesy poopsie woopsie a conceit for me I love the style of the author s sentences, and I appreciate the depth and quality of her research This topicthe immense and widening gap between Haves and Have Nots, the cultural forces behind the pernic...tl dr I was really excited about Heartland but a gimmick makes it fall flat.I was giddy when I heard about Heartland finally, a book had come along with the power of Nickled and Dimed Sadly, despite the glowing blurb from Barbara Ehrenreich, Heartland is not that powerful Even for a memoir, it lacks impact There is one thing Ms Smarsh does well in Heartland, and that s provide a nuanced look into the women of her immediate family She s clear on their weaknesses and also very clearly proud o tl dr I was really excited about Heartland but a gimmick makes it fall flat.I was giddy when I heard about Heartland finally, a book had come along with the power of Nickled and Dimed Sadly, despite the glowing blurb from Barbara Ehrenreich, Heartland is not that powerful Even for a memoir, it lacks impact There is one thing Ms Smarsh does well in Heartland, and that s provide a nuanced look into the women of her immediate family She s clear on their weaknesses and also very clearly proud of their strengths Problems in Heartland are Weirdly jarring choice to address the book to a supposed daughter Ms Smarsh might have borne as a teenager It doesn t work for two reasons The first, and biggest, is that it s very clear that there wasn t even the slightest chance of said child ever happening to Ms Smarsh as a teen, so the device comes off as affec...The American Dream has a price tag on it The cost changes depending on where you re born and to whom, with what color skin and with how much money in your parents bank account The poorer you are, the higher the price This is the book I d hoped Hillbilly Elegy A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis would be but wasn t Sarah Sm...This is a memoir that has really good content a great discussion of social class and poverty in middle America but the author s decision to write the book as if she were addressing her unborn child drove me bonkers And yet, Sarah Smarsh has a good life story to share, so I kept reading and tried to ignore the pretentious writing style Sarah grew up in rural Kansas in a hardworking family that was constantly trying to stay afloat Sarah says that at a young age, after seeing so many women This is a memoir that has really good content a great discussion of social class and poverty in middle America but the author s decision to write the book as if she were addressing her unborn child drove me bonkers And yet, Sarah Smarsh has a good life story to share, so I kept reading and tried to ignore the pretentious writing style Sarah grew up in rural Kansas in a hardworking family that was constantly trying to stay afloat Sarah says that at a young age, after seeing so many women in her family get trapped in the lower classes, she decided to study hard in school and to avoid getting pregnant Her plan worked Sarah went to college and became a professor and writer She says she worked on Heartland over the course of 15 years, and it tells both the story of her family and...Heartland A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in The Richest Country on Earth is a resounding story by Sarah Smarsh of her family life, heritage and farming culture on the Kansas prairie With the passage of the Homestead Act 1862 over 270 million acres of land was available for settlement on the American plains Settlers could receive up to 160 acres of land at no cost if they lived and cultivated their land for a period of five years Smarsh, raised on family farmland, wrote that her Heartland A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in The Richest Country on Earth is a resounding story by Sarah Smarsh of her family life, heritage and farming culture on the Kansas prairie With the passage of the Homestead Act 1862 over 270 million acres of land was available for settlement on the American plains Settlers could receive up to 160 acres of land at no cost if they lived and cultivated their land for a period of five years Smarsh, raised on family farmland, wrote that her Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors arrived on the frontier in the 19th century to stake a land claim This way of life was brutal on the vast prairie, the dust, the unforgiving climate, and lack of natural and financial resources It was necessary for Sarah s father to work away from the family homestead to support his family Perhaps unprepared for the unrelenting harsh conditions of being a farm wife, Jeannie, Sarah s mother had an underlyin...This is a very well written memoir that not only recounts memories of growing up in Kansas 30 miles west of Wichita , but ponders the plight of working class poor with a deeply humane sensitivity that offers clarifying insight into social conditions of the heartland In addition to the intimate details of family history the book s narrative reviews the history of the Homestead Act, the progressive politics of early Kansas statehood, the farming crisis of the 80s, the Reaganomic swerve toward co This is a very well written memoir that not only recounts memories of growing up in Kansas 30 miles west of Wichita , but ponders the plight of working class poor with a deeply humane sensitivity that offers clarifying insight into social conditions of the heartland In addition to the intimate details of family history the book s narrative reviews the history of the...I read this book with much anticipation after hearing the author interviewed on the New York Times Book Review Podcast The small town upbringing, the succeeding despite difficult challenges, being the first of your clan to earn a college degree, etc., rang true with me But I was disappointed in the execution and underwhelmed by the writing.The contrived literary device of speaking to a never born child, usually out of the clear blue and without warning , was startling and distracting It didn I read this book with much anticipation after hearing the author interviewed on the New York Times Book Review Podcast The small town upbringing, the succeeding despite difficult challenges, being the first of your clan to earn a college degree, etc., rang true with me But I was disappointed in the execution and underwhelmed by the writing.The contrived literary device of speaking to a never born child, usually out of the clear blue and withou...Follow my reviews on Book Nation by Jen is possible that I have overdosed on stories about indigence and the cultural divide, so for me, Sarah Smarsh s message was strong yet her story felt repetitive Smarsh tells us about her family and how their extreme poverty lead to generations of teenaged pregnancies, drinking, abuse, lack of education, bad or absent parenting, and all the while her family worked hard to live We learn everything through the author Follow my reviews on Book Nation by Jen is possible that I have overdosed on stories about indigence and the cultural divide, so for me, Sarah Smarsh s message was strong yet her story felt repetitive Smarsh tells us about her family and how their extreme poverty lead to generations of teenaged pregnancies, drinking, abuse, lack of education, bad or absent parenting, and all the while her family worked hard to live We learn everything through the author talking to her unborn child in my opinion, an unnecessary addition to this memoir which forces us to reevaluate how we look at our country s class structure, often based on earnings.According to the author, the government doesn t even recognize the people who are below the poverty line She says, In college, I began to understand the depth of the rift that is economic inequality With self awareness and recognition of her past, Sarah broke the chain that was passed down through the generations of her family as she chose to avoid teenage pregna...As a lifelong Kansan who came from a working class family in Topeka but knew nothing of the life of the rural parts of my state, I declare this essential reading Essential not just for Kansans like me, but for so many who have no idea what rural poverty looks like Sarah Smarsh recounts the story of her family most notably the women who held the family together while also weaving it into the larger dynamics of an increasingly crueler American capitalism that began with Reagan and continues to As a lifelong Kansan who came from a working class family in Topeka but knew nothing of the life of the rural parts of my state, I declare this essential reading Essential not just for Kansans like me, but for so many who have no idea what rural poverty looks like Sarah Smarsh recounts the story of her family most notably ...3.5 If you were a fan of Hillbilly Elegy by J.D Vance, then Heartland deserves to be on your radar too Smarsh comes from five generations of Kansas wheat farmers and worked hard to step outside of the vicious cycle that held back the women on her mother s side of the family poverty, teen pregnancy, domestic violence, broken marriages, a lack of job security, and moving all the time Like Mamaw in Vance s book, Grandma Betty is the star of the show here a source of pure love, she played a m 3.5 If you were a fan of Hillbilly Elegy by J.D Vance, then Heartland deserves to be on your radar too Smarsh comes from five generations of Kansas wheat farmers and worked hard to step outside of the vicious cycle that held back the women on her mother s side of the fa...

• English
• 17 October 2018
Sarah Smarsh
• Hardcover
• 290 pages
• 1501133098
• Sarah Smarsh
• Heartland