Elegy or requiem?

An unexpected big hit in the book world has been J.R. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, which is both a personal memoir and an attempt at diagnosing Appalachian ills. I think it succeeds very well in the former but not so much in the latter. The book was the subject of the latest Front Porch program/podcast. You can listen here. It's also on the menu in the latest Inside Appalachia.

Finally, thanks for the condolences from may people on the passing of Arpad the Magnificent. There's a big hole on the farm where a big white dog isn't.