No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home

As someone who is from, grew up in, and then escaped eastern Kentucky, this book has the resonance of truth. For those who haven't been there, eastern Kentucky is a land of strange ironies. It has breath-taking physical beauty, yet scenes of third-world squalor just around the corner. Its people can be generous, hospitable, and neighborly; but then in an instant can reveal themselves to be insular and narrow-minded. What Chris Offutt writes about in this book is his own reaction to these dichotomies. The good aspects of Kentucky -- and there are many -- lured him back "home," while the worst aspects -- and there are unfortunately many more of these -- eventually drove him away.I think the book does an excellent job dissecting the harsh truths about the small town he grew up in, returned to, and then evenutally fled. The rural language nuances are right-on, and the people are stright out of the local newspaper. Interwoven into Offutt's own story is the tale of his in-laws, survivors of the holocaust. At first, this parallel tale is distracting and seems jarringly out of place. As one reads more of the book, however, the holocaust tale begins subtly to integrate its themes into Chris's own story. Eventually, this parallel story gives the book its crystalized truth: home is in the heart and mind -- it is not a physical place. Chris Offutt's father-in-law knew that the pre-war Poland he grew up in no longer existed. For him, home was where he made it, and there was no yearning to return to a non-existant "home" of his childhood. To Chris Offutt, home never seemed to be where he was. It took a painful trip to the physical "home" of his boyhood to realize what his father in law already knew: the home of childhood is never returned-to in a spiritual sense; it can only be re-visited in a physical sense. What Chris Offut found -- and what many ex-patriot Kentuckians already knew -- was that eastern Kentucky provides a better memory of home than it does a place to make one. "No Heroes" brings this painful truth home in an elegant, unsparing way. If you like your truth unvarnished, this is where to get it.In reading some of the other reviews, it seems apparent that the present-day Kentuckians are upset at their portrayal in "No Heroes". This is not surprising. Their reaction is exactly what one would expect of the the people Offutt describes in his book. No mea culpas; no admissions that the education system is a joke; no recognition of the serious economic problems in the region. Their un-reflective defensiveness is exactly why I and people like me have no plans to return.

Beautifully written, honest to the bone, No Heroes is a story of several intertwined personal journeys. Individual chapters are little pockets of insight into his past (his in-laws as well as his own) and into the present time of writing this story. Anyone who is brave enough to delve honestly into their own past will understand (and appreciate) the clarity, struggle and emotion of this memoir. In order to grow, we must reconcile with our past, face it head on with a fierce determination to see it for what it is and move forward. That takes guts. As someone else has mentioned, this memoir has layers and layers of meaning. It is sad, honest, funny and complex - just like life itself. When we "go home", it is never to the home we yearned for, it is a home that we see with different eyes.

It seems to be important to state your connection with Kentucky, so I want to say that I'm at least a fourth generation Kentuckian who grew up in Central Kentucky, which is populated with immigrants from the hills. However, this work is not just about Kentucky but about the limitations that can imprison and destroy any and all of us. A mind that has no curiosity about the world, that is content with ignorance because it requires no change, is dangerous. People who do not question because they do not think become putty in the hands of clever, self-serving "leaders." Moreover, when economic stress, some physical and social isolation, either a disdain for education or a feeling of inferiority about being able to benefit from it, are added to the mix, it can become deadly. To me, the most memorable scene in the book is the one in the restaurant when Offutt and his wife have dinner with his and her parents. Offutt's father mimes killing a baby who annoys them with its crying.Offutt is a wonderful writer who has written a book with multiple meanings. He also loves Morehead and Kentucky, as all of us do who were formed by the commonwealth and its quirky people.

Offutt not only has a way with words, he has a wonderful way of shoving truth right up into your face, like it or not. I grew up in Rowan County, went to the same grade school, high school, and even college that he did. This book skips some of the beautiful parts of living there -- the countryside, the safety, and the freedom from crowds, traffic, and excessive rules. But it uses humor, coincidence, and perhaps a bit of hyperbole to dramatically demonstrate some of the major problems.One of the biggest problems with Appalachia is the deep cultural bias against education. When I was in fourth grade and bored, I took a book to school to read during study hall. The teacher told me that "reading was a waste of time" and I "wasn't able to read chapter books anyway". When I got to high school, again in college, and especially in graduate school, each time I found I was more than a year behind my classmates. It's clear that one of the major tickets to success in America is education -- our immigrants from China and India know that, why is it that so many Americans have trouble accepting it? And why do residents of one of the most educationally depressed areas in the country get insulted enough to rant and rave against an author who points that out? As any member of AA will tell you, denial of the problem will make that problem worse, not better.Yes, there is a bookstore in Morehead (two counting the university), but it's pretty small and sparsely supplied. The biggest section is for the religious right's reading pleasure. Yes, students at the university do have dictionaries. Some of them. But most of them have trouble affording textbooks and a reference book is a luxury. In college, my dorm roomate once stole a dictionary (from a professor :) and it was the only one on the floor.If you don't think this book tells truth, you don't know it or you're afraid to admit it. Offutt's blessing to us (and probably curse to himself) is that he sees the truth dead on and can't help but pointing it out.To a crazy person, a hero is not the one who says "you're fine, just a bit eccentrtic", but the one who forces him to recognize the truth, and pushes him to get help. No wonder so many Eastern Kentuckians are upset at Offutt. Instead of talking about the beauty (which is there in abundance!), he grinds their noses in problems that desperately need to be fixed.

The world can be divided between those who leave home and wish to go back and those who never leave in the first place. For those of us who have ventured away into the world Chris Offutt offers his glimpse of why it is so difficult to go home yet hard to stay away. He weaves his story with those of his inlaws who survive the Holocaust to find a new home in America. Only Chris can make a trip to the video store or the local library an event of suspence and meaning. It is a beautiful read from a man with a true writer's soul.