Matthew Desmond, the academic behind the Eviction Lab, studies the housing crisis from within the home.
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Be Ugly, Get Ugly
In the South, ugly is a behavior. “Quit being ugly and give me a hug,” or, my favorite, “be ugly to me and I’ll get you some ugly.”
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The Dead Become a Song: Review of Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing
Jesmyn Ward is the New South’s voice and artist. Her new novel is painful, melancholy, and beautifully wrought.
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Review: Steven Stoll’s Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia
Stoll’s book of Appalachian history was released in November of last year. The responses are wild, so here’s mine.
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Review: Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Shame, poverty, and gospel music. Dorothy Allison’s seminal work has it all.
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Review: Nancy Isenberg’s White Trash
Nancy Isenberg’s history of poor white Southerners, aka “white trash,” is both necessary and exceedingly good.
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White Trash, Hillbilly, Redneck or Red? J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy
J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy is “diversity reading.” From one escapee to another, this is what I think about all that.
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