Review: Journalist brings rare nuance to take on Appalachia

A journalist's new book about Appalachia brings rare sensitivity to an often misunderstood subject

“Twilight in Hazard: An Appalachian Reckoning” by Alan Maimon (Melville House) In the preface to his new book, Alan Maimon writes that he's “not here to take shots at J.D. Vance's ‘Hillbilly Elegy,'" but then he eviscerates Vance's bestseller with stiletto precision. “The message: He made it out," Maimon writes. “Why can't the rest of you lazy Appalachians? When we ask this question we misunderstand the region's problems." That's not the only contradiction in “Twilight in Hazard: An Appalachian Reckoning." Writing about his time as the Hazard, Kentucky, correspondent for the Louisville Courier Journal, Maimon, who grew up in Philadelphia, acknowledges the disdain Appalachians have for outsiders traipsing in to define them and then offers his own assessment. He recounts the flood of journalists descending to explain “Trump country," then expounds at length on former President Donald Trump's appeal there.