Readalikes: If you enjoyed March's selection . . .

If you enjoyed Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh, then you might also like these book recommended by The Booklist Reader:

• Born Bright: A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America by C. Nicole Mason
• Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
• The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
• Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land
• Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in Boom-Time America by Barbara Ehrenreich
• There Will Be No Miracles Here: A Memoir by Casey Gerald
• White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

March Not Fiction Book Discussions

This month we continue to read about strong women living in the middle of America, formerly a frontier, today considered "flyover" country, with Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh.

Born the daughter of generations of Kansas wheat farmers on her father's side and generations of teen mothers on her mother's side, Smarsh's life was shaped by social and economic trends away from small family farms that left her hard-working family trapped in a cycle of poverty and the chaos it creates in people's lives. Combining memoir with social and cultural analysis, Smarsh examines America's unspoken socioeconomic class divide through her family's experience. Smarsh realized at a young age that avoiding teen pregnancy and doing well in school would be her pathway to a more stable and fulfilling life. She is today a successful academic and journalist. Acknowledging that white privilege and a good public education were advantages, she says,

The American narrative of a poor kid working hard, doing the right thing, and finding success for it is so deep in me, my life story so tempting as potential evidence for that narrative's validity, that I probably sometimes err on the side of conveying a story in which I'm an individual beating the odds with her own determination. There's some truth in that story. But my life is a litany of blessings somehow sewn into my existence rather than accomplishments to my own credit.

What do you think? At the beginning of her memoir, Smarsh writes that, as a child, "I heard a voice unlike the ones in my house or on the the news that told me my place in the world." How did this voice differ from the voices of her family and culture? Who or what did this voice, that of a child, represent to Smarsh? She addresses this voice throughout the memoir. Did you find this to be a successful narrative technique? Why or why not? How was Smarsh's family affected by the shift from rural to suburban life? By Reaganomics, welfare reform, the housing bubble and mortgage crisis, the criminalization and monetization of poverty, and other political and economic trends in the 1980s, 90s, and early 2000s? In addition to these challenges, many of the women in Smarsh's family were the victims of domestic abuse at the hands of fathers, boyfriends, and husbands. Smarsh writes, "When I was well into adulthood, the United States developed the notion that a dividing line of class and geography separated two essentially different kinds of people." What are some of the stereotypes our culture holds about poor people, especially poor, white people? How do Smarsh and her family both confirm and challenge these stereotypes? Has Heartland changed the way you think about poverty in America? Why or why not? Good public education made a real difference in Smarsh's life, She argues that "this country has failed its children." Do you agree? If so, what could we do differently to ensure a more equitable outcome for all American and immigrant children? Critics have compared Heartland to Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. If you have read both books, what similarities and differences do you see between the two books and the authors' attitude toward poverty and their own personal success?

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, March 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, March 21, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.