Hillbilly Elegy

[Spongebob]

The story you watched was meant to be that explanation.  By the examples of the characters in the narrative.  The criticism it's getting (and has always gotten, before it being turned into a movie) is that the characters themselves are also examples of that kind of shorthand.

Now, as far as writing a story goes I get this.  It's tough to write something decent.  We simplify characters that are real and we invent imaginary characters where a real character (or the real character of a real person) doesn't suit the narrative purpose.  That the authors characters are cutouts is a given.  

- but since the narrative thrust of the entire work was to explain his discomfort (with a culture he believes to be in decline), perhaps it would have been better to do it a better way.

Vance was never shy about discrepancies between his own recollection of events and others - ton of good jokes about it on interviews when he was shopping the book around.  This isn't a problem for his story - I only mentioned it because you suggested that the truth of the story was relevant to why it was offensive. Beyond any criticism of the book (or the movie) I can only suggest that the contents could very well be true and meaningfully enough based on his own real experiences.  The extent to which his experience is representative of the culture which he sought to address, rather than the political ideology he'd used it to disseminate..is dubious.

I think your arguments are solid, but I'm still not sure I agree.  Let me present the idea from a different perspective.  Frank McCourt wrote his memoir, " 'tis", about his childhood in impoverished Ireland and then immigrating to America and his life there, etc...  There was also a movie, of course.  Did you consume either of these, and if so, was this story also due the same criticism?  To whit, its essentially the same story with a different setting.  The biggest difference was that Frank's family was far more impoverished.

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I watched it a few nights ago.  Overall for something to make noise at me, it was okay.  I did think they could have filled in a little more detail.  I enjoyed it but it's not something that I would watch again.  I thought the story was a little thin at times.  

As for the Appalachia setting, I think that same story could have been placed just about anywhere.

I concur on the quality of the film, good but not great.  And I completely agree on the setting.  In fact, its not a new story at all, just a very specific setting and maybe that's what people find to off putting.  Is the book & film picking on rural Appalachia?

I'm trying to think of a similar story that focuses on escaping poverty in an African American region/area but nothing comes to mind.  Anyone else remember something?  There was the 70's TV show, "Good Times".  Would that be considered a close analog?