PositiveThe Associated PressDespite those contradictions, Twilight in Hazard paints a more nuanced portrait of Appalachia than Vance did. It shines brightest in describing some of the area\'s colorful characters, from longtime Hazard Mayor Bill Gorman to Chris Fugate, who left his job as a state trooper to become a preacher ministering to people he once arrested. They are fully and generously portrayed. Maimon\'s exploration of Trump’s appeal feels accurate if not surprising. His takes on poverty, drug addiction and the decline of the coal industry don\'t ignore the region\'s history of exploitation, not to mention the indifference of its political leaders ... The book has its flaws, including minor errors of fact. Maimon bemoans the shrinkage of newspapers, noting its impact on the region, but his account of his own departure from the Courier Journal veers into ax-grinding ... In his summation, Maimon serves up one last contradiction ... Maimon has written a worthy addition to the collective body of smart rebuttals to Vance\'s book, and on some level its contradictions make sense.
