Heartland, by Sarah Smarsh, is subtitled “A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth.” As the author describes her experiences growing up poor in the Great Plains of the United States, she focuses on how generations of women and men were forced into lives defined by hard work, painful choices, and a lack of both freedom and respect. As she does so, she also develops themes exploring the impact of different sorts of legacies and cycles, the different powers of prejudice, and the failure of the American Dream.
