Hill Women

Author: Cassie Chambers
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Random House Publishing, 2020
Pages: 304
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains, Owsley County is one of the poorest counties in both Kentucky and the country. Buildings are crumbling and fields sit vacant, as tobacco farming and coal mining decline. But strong women are finding creative ways to subsist in their hollers in the hills.

Cassie Chambers grew up in these hollers and, through the women who raised her, she traces her own path out and bacak into the Kentucky mountains. Chambers' Granny was a child bride who rose before dawn every morning to raise seven children. Despite her poverty, she wouldn't hesitate to give the last bite of pie or vegetables from her garden to a struggling neighbor. Her two daughters took very different paths: strong-will Ruth - the hardest-working tobacco farmer in the county - stayed on the family farm, while Wilma - the sixth child - became the first in the family to graduate from high school, then moved an hour away to college. Married at nineteen and pregnant with Cassie a few months later, Wilma beat the odds to finish school. She raised her daughter to think she could move mountains, like the ones that kept her safe but also isolated her from the larger world.

Cassie would spend much of her childhood with Granny and Ruth in the hills of Owsley County, both while Wilma was off at college and after. With her "hill women" values guiding her, Cassie went on to graduate from Harvard Law. But while the Ivy League gave her knowledge and opportunities its privileged world felt far from her reality, and she moved back home to help her fellow rural Kentucky women by providing free legal services.

Appalachian women face issues that are all too common: domestic violence, the opiod crisis, a world that seems more divided by the day. But they are also community leaders, keeping their towns together in the face of a system that continually fails them. With nuance and heart, Chambers uses these women's stories paired with her own journey to break down the myth of the hillbilly and illuminate a region whose poor communities, especially women, can lead it into the future.

Review: From the outset, this book reminded me of Hillbilly Elegy. These are important stories. Already I know this will be a contender for the "best book of 2020" for me. I put a quick post on Facebook thanking the author for telling her story, and got a <3 in return. Love.

Chambers does a great job of bridging two worlds, and explaining the complexities of Appalachia. Really in awe of this book.