Reviews

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh

Only show reviews with written explanations

blankcrayon's review against another edition

2.0

Interesting insight into white, working-class farming life. However, I found the concept of writing the book to her unborn poor child to be distracting, off-putting, and strange.

thekaylie's review

Go to review page

3.25

a little too disorganized for my liking, i would get confused as to where we were in time and how events related to one another.

Smarsh's memoir is another in a genre that needs attention, drawing attention to the lives and difficulties of middle America. Smarsh's experience is particularly enlightening as it spans several lifestyles, from the poor rural lifestyle of much of her family, through her somewhat more urban experience in Topeka, and touching on her later experience as a successful journalist. She eloquently captures the ambiguity of "escaping" her earlier life. She writes as though speaking to the child she chose not to conceive so that the child would not perpetuate the cycle of poverty that it is reinforced by young motherhood, and so that Smarsh could break the cycle. The trope first seemed somewhat contrived, but in the end was a powerful way to highlight the costs of breaking the cycle.

milanaaaah's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

A compassionate look at the trauma and cycles of poverty in rural America

shelbynik's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

As someone who is a first generation college graduate, this book really hit home. I have some highly questionable relatives and it seemed like all of the stars aligned when I was able to make it out of lower middle class myself. I don't necessarily identify with everything the author has been through. But a lot of what she speaks to is truth. I will never say that my life has been more difficult than someone of the same economic background and a different race than me, but as a white person in the lower middle class still trying to claw my way out, it's really a weird place to be.