A review by ngallion
Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place by Scott McClanahan

2.0

Well, the appendix is good. The rest of this is strange stories of life in poor, rural West Virginia in search of a point. The stories don’t really come together to say anything profound even though they clearly are trying to. It seems to be aiming at being a love letter to life in this overlooked part of America, but there’s not a lot that makes most of the characters sympathetic. Rather than making me feel nostalgia for a place I’ve never been as a good memoir does, this one made me glad that my ancestors left this part of the country two generations before I came along. Very much a missed opportunity.