The Personal Side of the Law: A Book Review of Hill Women by Cassie Chambers
Country roads
Take me home
To the place I belong
~Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, and John Denver
Cassie Chambers bellowed out Take Me Home, Country Roads during her cross-country return to Owsley County. Hers is the story of many with rural upbringings: Feel the pull of the big world, chase potential, get homesick, and find a way back home. From the far-out tobacco fields of Kentucky to the bustling Ivy Leagues of the East Coast and back again, Chambers has journeyed to find her true home. Hill Women, her new memoir, is the story of the women who shaped her.
Brain drain, community abandonment, emigration, and tearing up roots. If a community is not thriving, members look elsewhere to improve the condition of their lives. Cassie Chambers felt this need to leave her Appalachian community as a young person. Something stronger, brought her back. Years after returning near to her Kentucky hometown, Chambers has become an agent of hope and change for the women in her community through the law, politics, and volunteer work. While she wouldn’t deny living elsewhere was important, coming home was her greatest commitment. Blue Ridge Country Publication wrote this about the new author, “Chambers doesn’t wear rose-colored glasses—and she doesn’t blame. New ways are needed going forward, she knows….and it’s clear she will be part of the change.”
A memoir focused on critical progress, Hill Women is a good resource for readers looking for information about Appalachian culture and social issues. The lawyer part of Chambers shows up in her well-researched and documented text. My thoughts and opinions on certain American policies were enriched by her words.
Hill Women was a tricky read, though. Possibly due to Chamber’s choices for content, but I kept wondering how her family felt reading this narrative. The words were honest sometimes to a fault. The content was so specific in some chapters that it bordered on unrelatable. Family is a universal theme in life and literature. For some reason, Hill Women seemed to feature a family I could only watch from the other side of the front window.
The last three chapters of the book lost all the punch Chambers was winding up to. Her personal stories about representing families of domestic violence, the prosaic accounts of her grandmother and mother’s lives, even her own professional momentum died off over a dinner conversation about what was going on in the news. A multi chapter dialogue about the 2016 and 2018 elections end capped the book.
In Chambers’ own words, “I wish I had some more solid conclusions to share, but, in the end, it’s the complexities of Appalachia and the people who live here that need sharing the most.”
I couldn’t agree with her more. I was starving for a point by the end of 250 pages.
This book fits squarely in the seek out if interested category. The topic and narrative are hyper focused, but not purposeful. Universal themes are glossed over, at best. I wouldn’t recommend it for someone looking for a pioneer spirited memoir, nor someone interested in moving to Eastern Kentucky. I’m not sure exactly when I will call it up from my memory. And that stinks because I really wanted to like this book.
Interested in Eastern Kentucky? Or maybe wanting a memoir about families working hard in America’s tough places? Check out these amazing reads:
