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Maybe someday
32
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
47/100Critics
17/100Scholars
Author:
Alan Maimon
Publisher:
Melville House
Date:
June 8, 2021
A work that refuses to mythologize Central Appalachia. It is a plea to move past the fixation on coal, and a reminder of the true costs to democracy when the media retreats from places of rural distress.
What The Reviewers Say
Despite those contradictions, Twilight in Hazard paints a more nuanced portrait of Appalachia than Vance did. It shines brightest in describing some of the area's colorful characters, from longtime Hazard Mayor Bill Gorman to Chris Fugate, who left his job as a state trooper to become a preacher ministering to people he once arrested. They are fully and generously portrayed. Maimon's exploration of Trump’s appeal feels accurate if not surprising. His takes on poverty, drug addiction and the decline of the coal industry don't ignore the region's history of exploitation, not to mention the indifference of its political leaders.
Maimon also brings the story up to date. He underscores the hollowness of Trump’s promises to bring back coal jobs and how much partisan politics have stymied halting efforts at progress. Maimon writes with a journalist’s clarity and plainspokenness; he’s an outsider but never condescending, and he’s accepting that some of the truisms about the region are indeed true.
An empathetic portrait of eastern Kentucky informed by the five years.
