The Forgotten Girls
A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America
Published on 18. April 2023
272 pages
978-0-241-32053-2 (ISBN)
Description
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A PROSPECT BOOK OF THE YEAR
'I couldn't put it down. . . an important book, raw and simple enough that you can't help but feel it deeply' James Rebanks, author of The Shepherd's Life
Talented and ambitious, Monica Potts and her best friend, Darci, were both determined to make something of themselves. How did their lives turn out so different?
Growing up gifted and working-class in the foothills of the Ozarks, Monica and Darci became fast friends. Bonding over a shared love of learning, they pored over the giant map in their classroom, tracing their fingers over the world that awaited them, vowing to escape their broken town. In the end, Monica left Clinton for university and fulfilled her dreams. Darci, along with many in their circle of friends, did not.
Years later, working as a journalist covering poverty, Monica discovers what she already intuitively knew about the women in Arkansas. Their life expectancy had steeply declined -- the sharpest such fall in a century. As she returns to Clinton to report the story, she reconnects with Darci, and finds that her once talented and ambitious best friend is now a statistic: a single mother of two, addicted to meth, jobless and nearly homeless. Deeply aware that Darci's fate could have been hers, she retraces the moments in each of their lives that led such similar women toward such different destinies. Why did Monica make it out while Darci became ensnared in a cycle of poverty and opioid abuse?
Gripping and unforgettable, The Forgotten Girls is a story of friendship and lost promise in 21st century America.
A PROSPECT BOOK OF THE YEAR
'I couldn't put it down. . . an important book, raw and simple enough that you can't help but feel it deeply' James Rebanks, author of The Shepherd's Life
Talented and ambitious, Monica Potts and her best friend, Darci, were both determined to make something of themselves. How did their lives turn out so different?
Growing up gifted and working-class in the foothills of the Ozarks, Monica and Darci became fast friends. Bonding over a shared love of learning, they pored over the giant map in their classroom, tracing their fingers over the world that awaited them, vowing to escape their broken town. In the end, Monica left Clinton for university and fulfilled her dreams. Darci, along with many in their circle of friends, did not.
Years later, working as a journalist covering poverty, Monica discovers what she already intuitively knew about the women in Arkansas. Their life expectancy had steeply declined -- the sharpest such fall in a century. As she returns to Clinton to report the story, she reconnects with Darci, and finds that her once talented and ambitious best friend is now a statistic: a single mother of two, addicted to meth, jobless and nearly homeless. Deeply aware that Darci's fate could have been hers, she retraces the moments in each of their lives that led such similar women toward such different destinies. Why did Monica make it out while Darci became ensnared in a cycle of poverty and opioid abuse?
Gripping and unforgettable, The Forgotten Girls is a story of friendship and lost promise in 21st century America.
Reviews / Votes
Think Elena Ferrante and My Brilliant Friend. Potts is excellent at showing how the political sentiments that white, poorly educated women uphold ultimately circumscribe their lives. In many ways it's a universal story: rural Britain fits this mould too -- Francesca Angelini * The Sunday Times * The Forgotten Girls rings with authenticity, a powerful, personal analysis of how women in poor, white, religious societies suffer. This, it struck me, isn't just an American story; it's the American story -- Melanie Reid * The Times * A deeply moving story of growing up in America's Bible Belt. I thought about it for days afterwards -- Francesca Steele * I News * The Forgotten Girls is a lament for lost opportunities and wasted lives; a controlled expression of rage at a system that fails so many even as it exploits their despair -- Stephanie Merritt * The Observer * At its heart an intensely moving, personal story of unbreakable friendship, this, like Tara Westover's Educated, is a book that packs a much wider resonance at a time when the gap between rich and poor grows ever wider across the world. It asks vital questions about life chances; and the seeming randomness of who gets them, and who doesn't -- Caroline Sanderson * The Bookseller, Non-Fiction Book of the Month * This is a patient, heartfelt description of the dark side of the American dream, a once vibrant community abandoned by global capitalism, and prey to any demagogue promising to 'Make America Great Again' * The Tablet * A deeply personal memoir of childhood. Potts has created a complicated tribute to her friend and to a generation 'set up for failure' -- Katy Guest * The Mail on Sunday * A masterly labour of love. In its unflinching exploration of character, circumstance and destiny, it's perfect. * Prospect Magazine * Tender, perceptive, important - and heartbreaking -- Lee Child I couldn't put it down. . . American culture has a toxic forgetting at its heart, a forgetting about communities that have lost their way and a blindness to why they fail. It made me think of so many people's lives in small towns and rural areas in Britain -- a powerful reminder that when you forget about people and consign them to eternity in failing places, then you create something deeply harmful for all of us. It is an important book, raw and simple enough that you can't help but feel it deeply -- James Rebanks, author of English PastoralMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
File size
2,74 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-241-32053-2 (9780241320532)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2024
Penguin Books Ltd
€14.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Monica Potts is a senior politics reporter for the website FiveThirtyEight. Her previous work has appeared in The New York Times, the Atlantic, NPR, and The New Republic, among other publications. She has been a New America Fellow and a senior writer with American Prospect magazine.
