The Forgotten Girls by Monica Potts

All of the Betsys and Beths in my life have always given good recommendations on everything from movies and books, to travel and fashion. So, when one of the Beths said she was reading this book, I wanted to read it too. "The Forgotten Girls" by Monica Potts is a memoir about how she was able to get out of her small Arkansas town, while her best friend Darci could not. This is their story, the story of so many young women in the Ozarks who are plagued by unemployment, teenage pregnancy, alcohol use, and drug abuse. I have to say that before this book the closest I had come to knowing about this region was the television series "Ozark." Darci in this book really did smack of Julia Garner's character "Ruth Langmore" in the TV series. The twist in all of this is not how Darci and Ruth remained stuck in the cycle of poverty, but how Monica Potts went to Bryn Mawr College and got out. After Potts graduates from college, she goes back to find Darci in order to write about their friendship. With a skilled writer's eye she combs over their childhood, looking for clues in their upbringings. Why did one go to jail and the other did not? Was it parenting? Was it determination? Or was it just luck? The story of their friendship is both poignant and tragic, but like "Hillbilly Elegy," definitely a journey into a different landscape. To buy this book on Amazon click here.