Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth [Large Print]

By Sarah Smarsh

Book Overview

*Finalist for the National Book Award* *Finalist for the Kirkus Prize* *Instant New York Times Bestseller* *Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, New York Post, BuzzFeed, Shelf Awareness, Bustle, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Library Binding
• Large Print: Yes
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1432859560
• ISBN13: 9781432859565
• Release Date: December 2018
• Publisher: Thorndike Press Large Print
• Length: 415 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Just okay

Not bad, but certainly not as good as the reviews have hyped. Other reviewers have commented on the strange structure of the book, a letter written to a child that would never be born. I agree with their assessment that it was odd and jarring. I think I would have enjoyed this more if the author didn't spend half the book moralizing on how and why poverty exists in America and instead kept this a strict memoir. The memoir/essay was annoying. While I found myself agreeing with a few of her assessments, her general castigation of the government as the problem of all her family's ills was tiresome. Though, I come to these opinions from the belief that the government is neither the source of all society's ills nor the source of society's salvation. I don't resonate with opinions where the purpose of government is to provide everything a society should need. As a memoir, it was strong and interesting. As an essay, it lacked backing evidence that wasn't anecdotal. Read for a book club. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have finished it.