Monica Potts

I have read a lot of reviews of this book since it came out. Positive review seem to arise from readers who applaud Monica's ambition and her desire to expand her world, and who grieve with her over her dear friend Denise's failure to develop her own talents and promise. I am in this crowd. I grew up in a rural community in the North and have witnessed first hand the results of a brain drain that pulls ambitious young people out into the wider world, leaving the less curious behind. Once upon a time, these stay-at-homes could look forward to stable lives as farmers, teachers, clerks, secretaries, nurses, and factory workers while keeping their community lively in the ways that rural communities have always done. Rural drug use changed that dynamic, devastating rural life. Denise's wild behavior was no different from the wild behavior of teenage girls in times past, but the consequences, as a result of drugs, was much worse.

The reviews that trash this book seem to be written by at least two different sets of people. The most offensive of these are ones that pretend that Monica Potts has some political agenda or axe to grind and that her book, and the statistics in it, are some kind of propaganda against rural people. Close behind are the loud Christians who seem to think that Denise's life, and lives like hers (drugs, unintended pregnancies, child abandonment, crime, whatever) are perfectly ok because Denise professes faith in Christ and didn't abort. These positions seem pretty weird to me. Why shouldn't we feel pain for Denise's life of addiction and the mental and physical degradation and feel frightened for her children who have been deprived of a mentally stable mother? Why do they blame Monica Potts for her reporting?

We seem to be so polarized that we can't take this book at face value and accord Monica Potts the right to tell a particular story to with a journalist's ability? It's hard to understand.

I received a review copy of this book from NetGalley.com. I then went out and bought two hardcovers for my library. One to mark up and one to keep clean.… (lisätietoja)

In The Forgotten Girls, author Monica Potts tells the story of how she escaped from rural, impoverished Clinton, Arkansas, and how her best friend from high school, Darci, did not. Darci fell victim to the systemic forces that keep people trapped in cycles of poverty, addiction, imprisonment, and abuse; Potts places the blame squarely on rural society, indifferent parenting, and especially on evangelical religion, which tells women they should marry young and make babies rather than going to college and having careers. It’s a sad story, and unfortunately it is not one that is well told. Potts’s writing is marred by redundancy, as if she does not trust readers to remember what she has already written. Darci herself is a frustrating, opaque character. All in all, this is yet another book that might have worked better as an investigative newspaper series.… (lisätietoja)

This is a combination of memoir and state of society, exploring how the lives of girls and women in the author's hometown are restricted and affected by a combination of poverty, dropping out of education, limited employment prospects, religious conservatism and social expectations. The author writes about these things while telling the story of herself and Darci, two women who have been friends from childhood but whose lives have diverged.

Both girls grew up in Clinton, Arkansas, a small southern town in families with issues, and were identified as very bright at school, "gifted and talented". They both thought about going to college from their teens. But while Monica Potts stumbled across amazing opportunities and went to study at the prestigious university Bryn Mawr, and has become a successful journalist, Darci drifted into boys, parties, sex, drugs, all too much, too young, dropped out of education and spiralled intro all kinds of trouble. Monica Potts recounts details of many twists and turns from childhood, growing apart, losing touch as she goes off to college, reestablishing contact in their 30s and trying to help and support Darci but the dilemmas that presents when it is clear that her friend is still on a destructive path.

The story is interspersed with references to sociological research into the area and into the experiences of people in Clinton and towns like it.

I originally heard some extracts from this book as a BBC Radio 4 serial here in the UK, and wanted to read the whole book properly.. I found this compelling, sad and thought provoking.… (lisätietoja)

I’ve got very mixed feelings about “The Forgotten Girls.” On the one hand, it’s a very moving memoir of lifetime friendship. On the other hand, it’s another of the “Hillbilly Elegy” genre that have become so popular since that book came out several years ago. Full disclosure: I am a 73-year-old male. The reason I say that is I found Monica Potts to be mildly sexist whenever she was discussing men. In one part of the book, she talks about the police coming to her friend Darcy’s house because Darcy had attacked her husband. Potts can’t seem to believe that Darcy would have done this unprovoked. It must have resulted in something the husband did. This is just one example of her seeming obsession with real or perceived patriarchy. Consider this excerpt from the book: “But only then did I realize why it had all fallen so hard on women: they were still expected to be the nurturers in spite of everything. They were supposed to keep the community going, through their thankless service to the next generation, the children to whom everyone turned for hope for a better future, no matter the status of their own lives. Women were held morally responsible for everything that happened in their families and communities. They were supposed to sacrifice everything for their children, even their own happiness and mental health.” Especially the last two sentences really need some sort of empirical support. Now, I know there is nothing wrong with editorializing in a nonfiction book. However, that said, in other parts of the book, Potts is meticulous about offering sources for her claims, to the point that in man reviews, readers criticized the book for sounding too much like an academic study. I think Monica Potts has much important to say, and I’m not trying to minimize that. It’s a valuable book, and I wouldn’t have given it 4 of 5 stars if I didn’t believe that.… (lisätietoja)