At Home in the Heart of Appalachia

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Summary: Exciting, thought provoking book
Review: As a resident of Pendleton County during the first 22 years of my life, I have discovered through the writing of John O'Brien why I harbor an intense pride of my home state. A must read for anyone who has lived in the beautiful mountain state, anyone who has traveled there, or anyone who is curious about Appalachia. Beautifully and simply written, with historical facts and interspersed with personal vignettes.

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Summary: This Book Touched My Heart...
Review: Having spent the first 19 years of my life in Appalachia and still returning every few years, I found this book to be extremely insightful and thought provoking. I did not understand the class systems of McDowell County WV in the 50's & 60's. Having lived in a neighborhood of "Haves" I had little contact with the "Have Nots." I did not understand at that time how important it was to my parents to not be seen as "hillbillies" and why those living in poverty and squalor (prior to the establishment of welfare) were so distasteful to them. I wasn't aware of these stereotypes until I went to college and met people from New York who found me to be different from what they expected a "hillbilly girl to be." John O'Brien's book helps certain parts of my past make more sense. I also appreciate his personal history and feel that this is part of the story that needed to be told.

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Summary: Welcome to Wild, Wonderful West Virginia--sort of
Review: I grew up in southeastern Ohio and northwestern West Virginia and I write, so I've always been interested in books about Appalachia. In most of them, I've read about illiteracy, incest, black lung, poverty and a whole heap of despair. Okay. Unfortunately, that was true for some residents--but the West Virginia I knew was friendly, funny, loving and, at times, breathtakingly beautiful. I make it back at least once a year and it still is all of those things and then some.
That's a side of the state I'm still looking for in fiction and nonfiction both.

I'm grateful to John O'Brien for the sections of his book that take on the long-standing myths and misconceptions about the Mountain State. It's definitely worth reading just for that. The other criticisms I've read on here have merit and I felt O'Brien's emotional problems and his relationship with his father were vague and sometimes even evasive. He sounded very clear about the state around him but not his own state of mind at times.

Still, definitely worth reading if you have an interest in West Virginia and Appalachia.
A great step on understanding a misunderstood region.

Rating:
Summary: Welcome to Wild, Wonderful West Virginia--sort of
Review: I grew up in southeastern Ohio and northwestern West Virginia and I write, so I've always been interested in books about Appalachia. In most of them, I've read about illiteracy, incest, black lung, poverty and a whole heap of despair. Okay. Unfortunately, that was true for some residents--but the West Virginia I knew was friendly, funny, loving and, at times, breathtakingly beautiful. I make it back at least once a year and it still is all of those things and then some.
That's a side of the state I'm still looking for in fiction and nonfiction both.

I'm grateful to John O'Brien for the sections of his book that take on the long-standing myths and misconceptions about the Mountain State. It's definitely worth reading just for that. The other criticisms I've read on here have merit and I felt O'Brien's emotional problems and his relationship with his father were vague and sometimes even evasive. He sounded very clear about the state around him but not his own state of mind at times.

Still, definitely worth reading if you have an interest in West Virginia and Appalachia.
A great step on understanding a misunderstood region.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Piognant
Review: I love to read, but im not much of a writer. However, i was so moved after reading this book that i had to share my thoughts. For years I have struggled with labels while traveling outside of the my home state of WV. If people even know that the state exists i get comments such as "Are you married to your Uncle? Ha, Ha" I would get so frustrated because these people have absolutely no idea what they are talking about, Where do they get this?!? O'Brian does an excellent job of explaining where the stereotypes of our region origiate and how some people then unknowingly act the part of the stereotype.
I had to read this book for a college course, but i could not put it down. First, it is interesting in that I am from the area his book describes and I can identify with so many of his feelings about his home. Second, unlike many reviews at this site, I believe that his life story is essential to the book. His dads relationship is described to aid in the understanding of the region and the people, and i personally found his introspection honest and refreshing, instead of trying to remove himself from the book he put his soul in it.

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Summary: West Virginia is more than a depression attempt at writing
Review: John O'Brien's At Home in the Heart of Appalachia is neither inspring, uplifting, or well written. His book is filled with overindulgent excuses for his father's racism while perpetuating stereotypes of Appalachia. His writing is aimless. In some areas, he seems too engrossed in self pity, and in others he just seems to be building on an image of a man he obviously created for himself in college. Attempts to strip his ego are shallow and unconvincing. At times, I really saw, or felt I saw, O'Brien trying to get a book out by deadline. If this was a writing that glorified the Appalachian experience or its people, he would have had an excuse. John O'Brien had some fuel to work with, if this was the case. The Woodland's Institute would have been suited for a book of this nature. His returning "home" may also have been a great journey, if it truly was his home. It wasn't. New Jersey was his home and John happened to have relatives in West Virginia.

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Summary: Finally, the truth
Review: Like John O'Brien, my parents were born and raised in WV. In the Franklin of his book, in fact. Like John, my parents left WV after high school look for jobs and greater opportunities. Like John, I am "from" WV, even though I didn't grow up there.

This book went straight to my core. First of all, because he's writing from Franklin, a town I know as "home". He explained so many things I've seen all my life but never quite understood -- the Woodlands Institute, the fight over school re-districting, the conflict between Franklin and the North Fork communities, etc.

I know the places and people he talks about and his words ring true. Everett Mitchell really could sell raffle tickets to a tree stump if he decided to! I also have had the same feelings of attachment and alienation from WV and "Appalachia". It's home but....

I've heard my parents describe their confusion about this mythical place called "Appalachia". I've heard them wonder where it is and what it's about because the myth never seemed to describe their home and their childhood, even though, theoretically, they are from the very heart of Appalachia.
I've seen the conflicts John O'Brien describes between the "middle class" and the "hillbillies" acted out within my own family. Within, I suspect, my parents marriage.

John O'Brien does the ONLY credible job of describing the myth of Appalachia I've ever read. Living in DC, every few years the local papers will come out with a fully predictable feature article. It will include someone, usually a transplant from the midwest, finally wandering away from the whirlwind of Capitol Hill and the White House and national politics and taking a drive west.

They "discover" that WV (and, by extension, the mythical Appalachia) is a mere 2 hours (2 hours!!!) from DC! But, oh!, the contrasts! Oh, the stark beauty! Oh, the poverty! Oh, the feuds! Oh, the tragedy! How can this be, a mere few hours from our nations capitol! The most powerful city in the world!! What can we DO about this?????

yada yada yada. Pretty nauseating, predictable, lamely written stuff. It was an incredible relief to finally read something true, thoughtful, and considered about West Virginia.

The one...downside?...to the book is some of the stuff about John's personal life. I'm torn between really appreciating how Appalachia and his personal trials are interwoven. But sometimes it seems just a bit too...much. That's a judgement call though. I can see why he did it. I can't really blame him.

I lent the book to my father, born and raised in "Appalachia", and currently living back on the home place in Franklin. He found it frustrating but I think that's mostly because it hit much too close to home for him. Once he got past his frustration, he agreed that John O'Brien honestly describes his home, his culture, and his world. I suppose you won't get a better recommendation than that.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: To be honest, I begrudgingly picked up this book as a required reading for my one of my college American history classes, but as I began to dive into its pages, I experienced a depth and passion that was completely unexpected. For years I had driven through the winding mountain roads of West Virginia on family vacations, and the state was nothing more to me than an uninteresting few hours of snaking highways that usually ending up making me car-sick. But with a unique blend of history, personal experiences, and philosophy, John O'Brien melds a compelling patchwork in his search for the meaning of "Appalachia" that is surprisingly cohesive depsite his vast and sudden jumps in time. His unpretenious reflections honestly leave you in the end feeling as though you have experienced and learned about an entirely unknown and foreign (yet vaguely familar) world while at the same time providing no resolution. His thoughts are both piercing and contradictory, mirroring the very existence of his own life and those around him. The people seemed to forever embrace and be trapped by stereotypes, history, and tradition, culminating in what O'Brien refers to as "Appalachian fatalism," a less glamorous subcategory of existenialism. So we find this journey through Appalachia and O'Brien's life a juxtaposition of traditionalism and post-modernism, peace and conflict, love and hate. This is a well-crafted, extraordinary book on what many would misjudge as a worthless topic and is well-worth your indulgence for both a greater appreciation and understanding of Americana and your own personal reflection.

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Summary: Amazing writer.....
Review: You get the idea that John O'Brien could hang out with anybody and listen and be unobtrusive and yet he certainly had his own share of agoraphobia.
I love how he treated his wyfe in the novel. There is a little dedication to her as his True North. Sweet and tender and to the point & thats all that needed to be said. The relationship couldn't have been an easy one-so many places & prob. not a lot of money most of the time.

Also interesting about how both O'Brien and his father fell into marraiges with Protestants who were not their social equals.

The chapters about his stays at Green Bank ( and his description of getting into a warm feather bed on a cold night) are vintage O'Brien. He really is a very kind writer. By that I mean he can see why people have good intentions that get interpreted as bad intentions. It is kind of like that with his relations with his father. His father wasn't a bad man, at all. Nor did John O'Brien want to be a bad son. The estrangement more or less happened despite either of their wishes and O'Brien really doesn't blame anybody for it, other than maybe himself. The only people he really seems hard on were the robber barons who stole so much from WVA and never gave anything back.

And its fascinating how he combines his own story of his own life, a socio-historical treatise in WVA, agricultural practices, his own love of "subsistence fishing" & his morphing into a stay at home dad who got into cooking. I think one of the parts of the book I like best are the snowy days in the mountains where he had nothing to do and nowhere to go. Any writer who can make having nothing to do and nowhere to go interesting is going to have me waiting in line for his next novel. I love his description of existentialism as Appalachian fatalism all dressed up to go out on a date.

But I'm not sure he's going to write anything like that again. How could anyone top that.