From everything I've read online, many actual Appalachians (Vance, real name James Donald Bowman, grew up in an Ohio
suburb that is not Appalachia) fucking hate this guy and his shitty book. It's filled with stereotypes, and of course, our main character Bowman, is the only one with the brains or gumption to make it out. He's the only one who is an actual human being, unlike those freeloading
hillbilly scumbags. There is a reason this book was a hit with the coastal elite shitlibs in 2016. It reaffirmed the thoughts they already had, and the stereotypes Hollywood had always
perpetuated. And while there is a lot of ugliness in the region - same as everywhere else - the way he threw the whole area under the bus really shows his sociopathy. I saw a radical feminist turned pickme recently praise him for being the "American dream". Considering he lied about his background to craft a better narrative, threw a whole region under the bus for fame, and sold out to corporate and government interests (his biggest donor is Peter Thiel), I guess yeah, he is a modern American dream.