Reactions to Chris Offutt's No Heroes

NEW APPALACHIAN BOOKS REACTIONS TO CHRIS OFFUTT'S NO HEROES I read your recent book, No Heroes, and I write to let you know that it is one of the most virulently anti-Appalachian books that I have read. I also grew up in Morehead; graduated from Rowan County High, Morehead State and received my legal degree from the University of Kentucky despite my "humble and limiting origins." Let's see in my 1965 class at Rowan County High, there were a few who became doctors, dentists, a bank president, several had distinguished careers in the military and working for federal and state governments, and numerous educators (hopefully a few who "mistreated" that poor little boy of yours). I guess they were not from Haldeman. I grew up in Clearfield in the 1950s and 1960s. We had indoor plumbing, a television, toothbrushes, cars, a stereo on which we listened to jazz (Satchmo was a favorite) and other popular musicians including Bob Dylan and Sinatra. We washed regularly and wore clean clothes. Oh, we had a few books around and even a dictionary. All this from a guardian and provider who worked as a truck driver for the Lee Clay Products Company. One wonders how we managed with such ignorance all around. I guess those folks who lived on the other end of the county with you and your familyjust didn't measure up. I did have anAunt who lived in your precious but now vanished Haldeman. Let's see, she raised several schoolteachers, a psychiatric nurse, and other professionals. I guess she didn't mix with your friends, but then again she and her husband operated a country store there for years but probably didn't carry toothbrushes. One of her grandsons is even a writer who makes his living writing about folks from Rowan County without the need to air all the negative comments that are your forte. Your portrayal of Morehead and its environs borders on the psychotic. Your half-truths may serve your literary career well (and your wounded ego and bank account) but the harm you have imposed on those who live and are growing up in this area is incalculable. You are a fine craftsperson of a "story" and write well to a degree, but what a self-serving presentation you have made of hill people. Gee, you really made an impact in Morehead during your visit. I wonder what planet your student who claimed never to have seen a dictionary was from? (If you can buy this story, I have a bridge in 92 Brooklyn I think you might want to invest in.) Your short-lived commitment to the community was unusually under whelming to the school and its students. Although your distortions appear to be bought whole cloth by the New York Times, etc., I was pleased to see that the Washington Post panned your book. "Hillbillies" (poor white people of Appalachia) are the last group that it is acceptable to stereotype in the mainstream press. The fact that you provide another needed platform for these dullards to further their dissemination of their misplaced, distorted and half-baked ideas on an area they don't understand or have never visited is sickening. You are a hack for the very people you pretend to dislike. Morehead is a small town with all the warts of any small town whether located in Ohio, Iowa, Montana or any other place. It is not perfect, and I could make a long list of those things that are not right with it (some mentioned in your book). In doing so, however, I would not attribute as you do that these shortcomings arise from an inherent defect of the folks who live there. Rather, they derive from human nature (and greed) found in abundant measure in Kentucky or your inlaws ' Poland; a fact you refuse (or are incapable) of recognizing in your literary efforts or life. —Lewis M. Stewart No Heroes is a wonderful read. It is recommended as required reading. Required for everyone as a challenging revelation of Holocaust camp daily life and survival. Required for anyone as a critical view of growing up and looking at life...