At Home in the Heart of Appalachia [Paperback]

John O'Brien (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 2002

John O’Brien was raised in Philadelphia by an Appalachian father who fled the mountains to escape crippling poverty and family tragedy. Years later, with a wife and two kids of his own, the son moved back into those mountains in an attempt to understand both himself and the father from whom he’d become estranged.

At once a poignant memoir and a tribute to America's most misunderstood region, At Home in the Heart of Appalachia describes a lush land of voluptuous summers, woodsmoke winters, and breathtaking autumns and springs. John O'Brien sees through the myths about Appalachia to its people and the mountain culture that has sustained them. And he takes to task naïve missionaries and rapacious industrialists who are the real source of much of the region's woe as well as its lingering hillbilly stereotypes. Finally, and profoundly, he comes to terms with the atavistic demons that haunt the relations between Appalachian fathers and sons.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

John O'Brien's scrupulous, exactingly honest memoir opens in 1995 on the day of his father's funeral in Philadelphia, which he will not attend because "eighteen years of silence stand between us [and] my presence would only add to family stress." Instead, he chooses to visit his father's birthplace in Piedmont, West Virginia, and consider the roots of their estrangement in the region that indelibly shaped them both. In a subtle, ruminative text, the author interweaves his memories with a history of Appalachia that debunks many myths. (The Hatfield-McCoy "feud," for example, had more to do with dislocation caused by the coal and timber industries than any native blood lust.) Much of the book limns O'Brien's first few years in Franklin, a small town two hours south of Piedmont where he and his family settled in 1984. A bitter conflict involving the Woodlands Institute, an educational establishment that locals feared was trying to "take over" their school system, becomes a paradigm for O'Brien of the way affluent outsiders have always stereotyped Appalachia as a primitive backwater peopled by hillbillies, while the residents resisted attempts by strangers to "improve" their home ground with a stubborn fatalism about the possibility of (or need for) change. The author's own conflicts with his parents--who were skeptical when he went to college and horrified when he admitted to seeing a psychiatrist--reveal a provincialism and narrow-mindedness he does not deny are common in the region. At the same time, he affirms the joy of living close to nature and honors the "plainspoken, empathetic, and genuine" native character. Because his complex work doesn't trade in stock nostrums or easy sentimentality, the portrait that emerges of a people and a place rings deeply true. --Wendy Smith --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

"I have spent my life leaving Appalachia and coming home again," writes John O'Brien in his first book, At Home in the Heart of Appalachia. Born in Philadelphia to a father who'd fled a painful Appalachian childhood, O'Brien moved back to West Virginia as an adult. Upon his estranged father's death in 1995, O'Brien did not attend the funeral; instead, he further explored his family's roots and his own experience, yielding this memoir. Dealing deftly in fact and perception, he recalls his childhood confusion about his origins. His family considered itself West Virginian; outsiders called them Appalachian: "[i]n time I would learn that Appalachia was an imaginary place and that being Appalachian was imaginary but terribly damaging." In lovely, sensitive, frank prose, O'Brien portrays a West Virginia beset by coal-mining tragedies and poverty, blessed with lush beauty and rich mountain culture. (Knopf, $25 320p ISBN 0-394-56451-0)

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (September 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385721390
• ISBN-13: 978-0385721394
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #799,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, the truth, September 11, 2001

By 

Kelly Bowers (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At Home in the Heart of Appalachia (Hardcover)

Like John O'Brien, my parents were born and raised in WV. In the Franklin of his book, in fact. Like John, my parents left WV after high school look for jobs and greater opportunities. Like John, I am "from" WV, even though I didn't grow up there.

This book went straight to my core. First of all, because he's writing from Franklin, a town I know as "home". He explained so many things I've seen all my life but never quite understood -- the Woodlands Institute, the fight over school re-districting, the conflict between Franklin and the North Fork communities, etc.

I know the places and people he talks about and his words ring true. Everett Mitchell really could sell raffle tickets to a tree stump if he decided to! I also have had the same feelings of attachment and alienation from WV and "Appalachia". It's home but....

I've heard my parents describe their confusion about this mythical place called "Appalachia". I've heard them wonder where it is and what it's about because the myth never seemed to describe their home and their childhood, even though, theoretically, they are from the very heart of Appalachia.
I've seen the conflicts John O'Brien describes between the "middle class" and the "hillbillies" acted out within my own family. Within, I suspect, my parents marriage.

John O'Brien does the ONLY credible job of describing the myth of Appalachia I've ever read. Living in DC, every few years the local papers will come out with a fully predictable feature article. It will include someone, usually a transplant from the midwest, finally wandering away from the whirlwind of Capitol Hill and the White House and national politics and taking a drive west.

They "discover" that WV (and, by extension, the mythical Appalachia) is a mere 2 hours (2 hours!!!) from DC! But, oh!, the contrasts! Oh, the stark beauty! Oh, the poverty! Oh, the feuds! Oh, the tragedy! How can this be, a mere few hours from our nations capitol! The most powerful city in the world!! What can we DO about this?????

yada yada yada. Pretty nauseating, predictable, lamely written stuff. It was an incredible relief to finally read something true, thoughtful, and considered about West Virginia.

The one...downside?...to the book is some of the stuff about John's personal life. I'm torn between really appreciating how Appalachia and his personal trials are interwoven. But sometimes it seems just a bit too...much. That's a judgement call though. I can see why he did it. I can't really blame him.

I lent the book to my father, born and raised in "Appalachia", and currently living back on the home place in Franklin. He found it frustrating but I think that's mostly because it hit much too close to home for him. Once he got past his frustration, he agreed that John O'Brien honestly describes his home, his culture, and his world. I suppose you won't get a better recommendation than that.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Piognant, December 15, 2004

By 

J. Hartman "wvu student" (Fort Ashby, WV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: At Home in the Heart of Appalachia (Paperback)

I love to read, but im not much of a writer. However, i was so moved after reading this book that i had to share my thoughts. For years I have struggled with labels while traveling outside of the my home state of WV. If people even know that the state exists i get comments such as "Are you married to your Uncle? Ha, Ha" I would get so frustrated because these people have absolutely no idea what they are talking about, Where do they get this?!? O'Brian does an excellent job of explaining where the stereotypes of our region origiate and how some people then unknowingly act the part of the stereotype.

I had to read this book for a college course, but i could not put it down. First, it is interesting in that I am from the area his book describes and I can identify with so many of his feelings about his home. Second, unlike many reviews at this site, I believe that his life story is essential to the book. His dads relationship is described to aid in the understanding of the region and the people, and i personally found his introspection honest and refreshing, instead of trying to remove himself from the book he put his soul in it.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not There Yet..., September 3, 2001

By 

Steve Wolfe (King George, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At Home in the Heart of Appalachia (Hardcover)

Maybe I am not quite old enough at 42 to find peace with West Virginia. Mr. O'Brien's book worked on many levels for me - the perspective on the Hatfields and McCoys (a "real" McCoy was one of my best childhood friends in Charleston) - and his insights about the "Appalachian" character, but the region still maddens me just the same.

Like the author I too am estranged from my father. In my case it was in part to provide a buffer for my daughter against his racism, despair, and raging insecurities and in part my personal revulsion against the same traits. In the book however I found a beginning of an insight as to why older men of that region feel the way they do. Having achieved personal success it has always saddened me that it could not have been gained without leaving the land of my birth. Unlike Mr. O'Brien however I have never felt the urge to return. What his book has done however is to somewhat soften the hard edges of my personal feelings about the state, it's culture, and perhaps pave the way for a more mature perspective that Mr. O'Brien has obviously achieved. While I will never live there again (I left in 1981),maybe one of these days I too will think of it as "home".