The Shadows of Appalachia

Born in 1928, Mary Bremier has a remarkably keen eye, both for the beauty of her natural world and for the telling details of human frailty. The Shadows of Appalachia has a deft, musical voice that recalls the regional dialect as well as the songs, sayings, and prayers that shaped her Depression-era childhood. Her gentle irony lays bare the mindset of her hardworking, proud, ignorant, doomed-to-failure, beloved Appalachian family. The Appalachian culture, the same subject as Hillbilly Elegy, is