Customer Reviews

American Hollow

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Wanda Bowling, daughter-in-law of Iree & Bass Bowling, is my best friend. I love her dearly. I work with her every day at Mid South Electrics. I have stayed at her home, attended the annual homecoming & gotten to know & love many members of her family. This book is not condesending or sensationalized; it merely "tells it like it is." American Hollow describes the lifestyle of the Bowlings. Because I know & love these people, I think I am more qualified to say this than someone who has merely visited the Bluegrass Region.

Hello. The main character in this book stayed with my mother when my youngest sister was borned. Iree that is,so I know very well how and what this book and document on HBO is like.In fact my mother and two sisters live now less than two miles from Bass and Iree Bowling.Even though I live in another state ,,I go back and visit my mother very often. Also I always go back for the Home coming at Labor Day Weekend every year. Yes this is the way of the mountian people but,we are very proud of our hertage. Also most have running water and modern conviences now days too. However the Bowling family lives just like the book says. How do I know? You say! Because I know them very personally. P. Woods Ps..Very good work Rory..

In my opinion, the American Hollow is not the author's literary and photographic perception of life in Appalachia. It is an unbiased view of life in the hollow as seen by one family. The author did not attempt to label the family as being representative of the population in general. Whether the family is atypical of the average Appalachian family is irrelevant. The determination of authenticity can be more appropriately evaluated by the participants, the actual family members depicted in the book and film. If the family and neighbors recognize the depictions as creditable, then the author has done a good job of telling it like it is, without approval or disapproval, but merely acceptance that this is one Appalachian family. I missed the documentary on HBO and have searched high and low for it without success. Would be interested to know where I might obtain a copy...all comments welcomed.

As a college professor, psychotherapist, and son of a coal miner from Butcher Hollow, the film and book speak volumes about the origins and values my family. I am amazed by the defensiveness of the reviewers. If we saw a documentary of a poor black family, there would not be the self-righteous need to defend the concept that "not all black people are like this." Indeed, the most insulting thing that can be said among whites is that someone is "poor white trash." Perhaps this defensiveness expressed by other writers to convince us that "we even have running water" comes from a belief that if you're white and poor then you must be inherently lazy. I find the Bowling family amazingly adaptive given the circumstances in which they find themselves. Iree's inner strength is a lesson for us all. I believe that reviewers who feel that Ms. Kennedy set out to depict all "hill folk" as the Bowlings fail to grasp the notion that this is the story of ONE family and their story is legitimate and worthy of the readers/viewers time. Those who feel the need to vilify this work might do well to reflect upon their own countertransference, and discover what the REAL issue is. It certainly is not only about the Bowling family. I use the film each time I teach undergraduate and graduate multiculturalism (a liberal California agenda) to open discussion concerning empathy, empowerment, and a strength-based perspective in viewing family systems. And I do tell the students that some people even have "runnin' water."

I am not from Kentucky but I personally know relatives of this family and I have visited this mountain area with them. This is really how this family lives and I find the documentory and the book to be actual fact regarding this situation. Many of the relatives have left the area over the years and do lead fine lives in other states. This would represent the remainder of the family that chose to stay with their roots.

I will always remember my time in Kentucky fondly. This book and the movie remind me of the simplicity and values of the region. You can never know what it truely is like until you live there and I will never know what it is like to live there for a lifetime. This book offers a glimpse into life in an American Holler.

I am not familiar with the particular family that is the focus of the book and documentary, but having lived in Eastern Kentucky all my life, I can attest to the fact that this family represents the exception and not the rule. It is quite dangerous to generalize that the entire region is full of families living in such conditions. There are poverty-stricken people in every region, even in inner-cities. Documentaries like this serve to perpetuate the "hillbilly" stereotype that is so demeaning and destructive to the proud people of Appalachia. Most of us are not living without modern conveniences, technological advances, or even advanced education. I would have appreciated the spirit of this effort if there had been any attempt to distinguish the experiences of this family from the majority of the population of Eastern Kentucky. Instead, they are presented as a typical example of the "modern" Appalachian family. That is a shamefully deceptive myth.

Quaint and inaccurate Reviewer: Eva Webster-Frizzell from Tennessee I have read and am appalled at the first of many inaccuracies in this book. The first, most glaring to anyone from the area is the caption of the two-page "homecoming" picture. The actual gathering is for a baptism. Anyone not recognizing this has spent a year not learning. Very disappointed in this book. I bought the book for my sister, a PHN working with people in very poor circumstances in the Sequatchie Valley of Tennessee. She had hoped to see the documentary but missed it. I hope she can look over the problems with the book, we can forgive Yankees who try to look at and into our lives and consistently get the wrong information. By the way, our widowed mother reared twin daughters without ever resorting to welfare.

Totally misleasding.

I have visted the Bluegrassed Commonwealth many times. As the many other reviewers attest, this is a skewed and slanted presentation of limited facts. Different people make different outcomes of their given circumstances.

In this book (as in the companion public shock flick), there seems to be an attempt to capitalize on public ignorance about the Thouroughbred Capital of the World. Granted, there is some rough living here and there, but it is a good and rich life for anyone who dives into this fertile and unspoiled environment if they will apply themselves thereto. I would suggest that there is always some Royal Bleeding Fool in any royal court.

I am a pencil-necked bean-counting geek, but strap a camera and an HBO expense account on my back, and I would bring back a much clearer, relevant, and meaningful story. Of all the stories that could describe the human spirit to excel and inspire others, HBO sunk down to this. This is a simple case of throwing the truth out the window for the sake of ratings.

Granted, there has been exploitation and subserviance of the human spirit for natural resources. Perhaps multiple generations have suffered at the hands of rich lawmakers who stole the lands and mineral rights from the people. This story can be found in any culture, and like any story of evolvement, these downtrodden produced heroes who took back the homestead from the oppressors.

Jerry Springer audiences would love this. Morally superiour carpetbaggers would love this. Lovers of truth and humanity will hate every minute of this underscoring of the worst that we could ever be as a human society.

P.S. I only wish Amazon provided the option of a negative rating.

"~I thought I would share with the readers the note sent by my sister when she finished the book purchased for her. She is in daily contact with people of the area, she wrote to me, "Thanks again for the book. I really enjoyed it. Some of the language I could"~ job. So far to go to find employment and if factories come in they don't