No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home

Rating:
Summary: Pathetic Misrepresentation
Review: As a student of Morehead State University and a long time resident of Appalachia, I can only hope that Mr. Offutt intended his book to be PURE FICTION. In addition, I even took the one creative writing course he offered (and at the time I was very satisfied with the class). Because of this, I can honestly and confidently say that the author made up almost all of his situations to make himself out to be a superior to Appalachian natives he claims to 'know' so well. His repeated insults and sly innuendos do nothing but make him look like a fool to those who know the truth. 'Back home,' you can bet we all know the real reason he left was not his disappointment in Appalachia, but Appalachia's disappointment in him.

Rating:
Summary: No Heroes Rings True
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Truly genuine, his best book yet.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: OK - But Not Great - Why is thisTwo Stories inside One Book?
Review: I heard Mr. Offutt on the Radio, National Public Radio, talking about this book about "going back home". "Returning home" has been a dimension in my own life, so, I connected with the author's observations.

The radio interview with Mr. Offutt piqued my curiosity and this is the first book I have read of his. So, that being said, unlike other reviewers, I have read no other works of his to compare this one to (which other reviewers have).

I knew the book was about returning home to Eastern Kentucky. I read the jacket cover of the book where it revealed that Mr. Offut now lives in Iowa City, Iowa. So, before I read the first page, I surmised that he went back home to Kentucky but for some reason didn't stay there. This was confusing? Maybe confusing is the wrong word. Disappointing - dismaying. It was obvious before even starting the book that going back "home" didn't work out.

I went to college also in the Appalachian mountains and Offutt's descriptions of the Kentucky Mountains, ridges and hollows (hollers), was evocative and brought me back to those days of my own. His interactions with his former teachers and friends were good I thought. He runs into a former girlfriend and briefly thinks about what could have been with her for about two paragraphs. He talks about his adolescence.

I too have been involved in college teaching and I found his descriptions of reaching out to one or two of his special students quite poignant and very real. I found his descriptions of interacting with town folk with special language and gestures quite accurate. He painted a good picture in my mind and I only wish there was more of it! His anecdote about going into the bank for a mortgage loan was a great piece of writing as he paints the picture of getting the loan without even having his college teaching job signed, sealed and delivered yet.

I agree with the other reviewers who have mentioned the Chapters about the Holocaust. Offutt's in laws are survivors of the Holocaust and he intersperses chapters about them and their war time experiences throughout his own memoir. It is like two books in one but it did not work for me. I like the Kentucky part that are Offutt's own, not his transcription of his in laws talking about themselves into a microcassette recorder. Right now, I do not want to read a book about the Holocaust, and I felt deceived a little to find that material interspersed in his own personal memoir. Maybe this is some creative device that went over my head? If so, someone please explain it to me.

I rated the book lower than 5 stars for the reason of the Holocaust chapters. I greatly enjoyed the Kentucky chapters. If I want to read books about the Holocaust, I will get those when I choose to.

[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: OK - But Not Great - Why is thisTwo Stories inside One Book?
Review: I heard Mr. Offutt on the Radio, National Public Radio, talking about this book about "going back home". "Returning home" has been a dimension in my own life, so, I connected with the author's observations.

The radio interview with Mr. Offutt piqued my curiosity and this is the first book I have read of his. So, that being said, unlike other reviewers, I have read no other works of his to compare this one to (which other reviewers have).

I knew the book was about returning home to Eastern Kentucky. I read the jacket cover of the book where it revealed that Mr. Offut now lives in Iowa City, Iowa. So, before I read the first page, I surmised that he went back home to Kentucky but for some reason didn't stay there. This was confusing? Maybe confusing is the wrong word. Disappointing - dismaying. It was obvious before even starting the book that going back "home" didn't work out.

I went to college also in the Appalachian mountains and Offutt's descriptions of the Kentucky Mountains, ridges and hollows (hollers), was evocative and brought me back to those days of my own. His interactions with his former teachers and friends were good I thought. He runs into a former girlfriend and briefly thinks about what could have been with her for about two paragraphs. He talks about his adolescence.

I too have been involved in college teaching and I found his descriptions of reaching out to one or two of his special students quite poignant and very real. I found his descriptions of interacting with town folk with special language and gestures quite accurate. He painted a good picture in my mind and I only wish there was more of it! His anecdote about going into the bank for a mortgage loan was a great piece of writing as he paints the picture of getting the loan without even having his college teaching job signed, sealed and delivered yet.

I agree with the other reviewers who have mentioned the Chapters about the Holocaust. Offutt's in laws are survivors of the Holocaust and he intersperses chapters about them and their war time experiences throughout his own memoir. It is like two books in one but it did not work for me. I like the Kentucky part that are Offutt's own, not his transcription of his in laws talking about themselves into a microcassette recorder. Right now, I do not want to read a book about the Holocaust, and I felt deceived a little to find that material interspersed in his own personal memoir. Maybe this is some creative device that went over my head? If so, someone please explain it to me.

I rated the book lower than 5 stars for the reason of the Holocaust chapters. I greatly enjoyed the Kentucky chapters. If I want to read books about the Holocaust, I will get those when I choose to.

[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: No Dog In This Hunt
Review: I'm not from Kentucky and have never visited the state, so I can't speak to any factual errors that might be in this book. I CAN say that I found it an excellent read and it brought to life scenes I can have no personal experience of, whether they transpire in the hills of KY or in the prison camps of WWII. The juxtaposition of the Holocaust tales and the homecoming to Kentucky stories is unusual, but it worked for me; I've never felt so vividly what Jews went through under the Nazis.
Looking at Chris Offutt's pictures and reading his words, I don't think I'd get along with him too well. He does seem to have a chip on his shoulder and seems haunted by some ghosts that elude his attempts to put them to rest. But he uses words well and gave me a couple of interesting hours inside his head...a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't--well, you know.

Rating:
Summary: He sounds like a funny and likable guy
Review: The book No Heroes suffers from a severe dislocation, when Chris Offutt tries to tell the story of Arthur and Irene, his in-laws, and their shattering Holocaust experiences, but basically giving them short shrift and only a few paragraphs compared to his lengthy tales about encountering old chums, teachers and girlfriends when he returns to teach in the hills of Kentucky.

His little hostage to fortune, Sam, doesn't like school there, so Chris doesn't stay long. In a way it's a shame he wrote this book because it makes nearly every person in the Kentucky hills sound like a moron. He is unforgiving in his characterization. can people really be this small-minded and idiotic? Maybe so, but he isn't doing the Kentucky visitors bureau any favors.

At the same time, he's great at describing things, and the colorful dialect of many of his old Morehead buds will provoke a round of belly laughs, some of their sayings are both priceless and profane. He sounds like a funny and likable guy, except he's a little bit on the preachy side.

Not really a success, but maybe he's written other and better things, I'd read more of him.

Rating:
Summary: longitude and attitude
Review: this memoir reads like a journal and seems to square many assumptions the writer went into a larger world to confirm. my own experience: leaving the south, making friends from other cultures, then coming back (for what?) line up almost perfectly with the trajectory of Mr. Offutts story. Progress has been made, work needs to be done.
Locals who have problems with this book, I have advice: go and be.
Chris is actually doing you a service...