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Reviews
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh
sherryleblanc's review against another edition
1.0
Couldn’t finish this. Writing to an unborn, not even conceived daughter was a weird storytelling device that was too distracting.
legalois's review against another edition
4.0
Wow!
This was a deep book that gave me so much to ponder and definitely changed my outlook on the welfare system and poverty.
This was a deep book that gave me so much to ponder and definitely changed my outlook on the welfare system and poverty.
lizzlelizzle's review against another edition
4.0
Really touching memoir about generational poverty in a (surprisingly) matriarchal rural Kansas family. The memoir is written as a letter to a daughter that the author never had: the teen pregnancy that would’ve embedded her deeply into the pattern of her family history and aligned her trajectory with that of the women she admires and loves, yet obstructed her from any chance to break free in pursuit of the withering mirage of an American dream. Beautiful premise with honest writing. The narrative is a bit scattered (somewhat lacking an overall structure) with what feel like some significant gaps, but I’m still glad I read it.
katieproctorbooks's review against another edition
4.0
A really informative and well-written memoir. At first I was a little put off/confused that this seemed to be a letter to the author’s imaginative would-be child, had she gotten pregnant at 16 like the rest of the women in her family, but by the end I mostly got why she did it. I think this group of people she belongs to, Midwestern farmers, rural people living in poverty, is one that goes largely unnoticed and I appreciate her story for the fact that it taught me about her specific experience and how politics and policy affected her life.
tiredenglishteacher's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Beautiful memoir about growing up poor in the richest country on earth (whoops, is that exactly the subtitle? It’s accurate). Family ties, generational patterns and traumas, and the systems that keep poor people poor all explored. Unique exploration of poor, working White American life.  Audiobook was great, could not stop listening.Â
invisiblejulie's review against another edition
1.0
If I could give this book 0 stars I would. I have nothing nice to say about it.
andipants's review against another edition
4.0
There were some things I didn't love about this book. The nonlinear structure was a bit hard to follow at times, and a family tree would have been helpful, as I several times found myself struggling to remember exact family relationships -- lots of "Wait, was that her aunt or sister?"-type moments (which I totally get, my family's that way too -- but it was often confusing). I also didn't love the device of addressing the narrative to the author's non-existent child, though it didn't bother me nearly as much as it did some people here, apparently. I see what she was going for, comparing what might have been to how things actually went, but it did feel a little gimmicky.
What I did love, though, was the actual content of the book. It's a loving but unsentimental view of the place she came from, presenting the childhood joys of hayrides and sledding alongside her family's struggles with domestic violence, addiction, and family instability. A lot of people seem to be comparing it to Hillbilly Elegy, which I think is an apt comparison, but I'd say this book is the stronger of the two, because along with telling her own family story, Smarsh connects it to the political and economic trends and the larger social context that have impacted rural poverty and the people living in it since the mid-20th century. It's part memoir, part family history, and part sociological analysis, and ends up being a clear-eyed indictment of the American dream, even as the author herself seems an embodiment of it. Definitely a worthwhile read.
What I did love, though, was the actual content of the book. It's a loving but unsentimental view of the place she came from, presenting the childhood joys of hayrides and sledding alongside her family's struggles with domestic violence, addiction, and family instability. A lot of people seem to be comparing it to Hillbilly Elegy, which I think is an apt comparison, but I'd say this book is the stronger of the two, because along with telling her own family story, Smarsh connects it to the political and economic trends and the larger social context that have impacted rural poverty and the people living in it since the mid-20th century. It's part memoir, part family history, and part sociological analysis, and ends up being a clear-eyed indictment of the American dream, even as the author herself seems an embodiment of it. Definitely a worthwhile read.
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.