I have had a copy of this book from NetGalley for an embarrassingly long time. I originally requested it while I was working on my dissertation, and also working on some side projects about the way the midwest is represented in a lot of television and pop culture. I thought this book was going to be about that, and it wasn't. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think part of the reason it sat on the shelf and my now lackluster review is simply an expectation issue.

I was expecting more a more studied sociological approach to the issue, rather than a person journalistic one. This read a little more like a Bill Bryson book than a sociological one. There are a lot of individual stories told here, and a lot of people met -- but the stories in summary sound very similar the outgoing folks who have mostly lucked into good tourism/community outreach based jobs in these small towns like the towns in which they live/work/know everyone. They know it might be hard or isolating for some, but they wish more young people would find the gumption to move back. Occasionally the author also talk to a few young people who have moved back, and while they miss having a movie theater/public library/museums/department stores/specialized medical care/reliable internet, they do miss the chance to find housing or a paying job to fund that housing.

She tries to bring in some discussion of diversity, but that is difficult given the ethnic makeup of the area she's exploring. But she also doesn't talk to anyone who is cleaning beds at the local motel, or needs to drive more than 45 to find medical care, or talk to anyone who who is not straight. One of the few single people she talks to in the book from rural Kansas is has found more success meeting someone through work colleagues in China than he has meeting anyone locally. It's just a very rosy picture of life in these extremely small towns in which everyone seems to be talking off the same talking points of what living in a small town is like. All the places and stories just seem to blend together.

Thanks to University Of Iowa Press and NetGalley for providing me a free advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for this honest review.