Flat Broke with Two Goats by Jennifer McGaha ***

The crash of 2008 ejected an English college teacher and her accountant husband from their upper-middle-class life of suburbs and private schools to fifty acres and a rundown cabin in the Appalachian Mountains. Through trial and error and Google, they learned to raise chickens and goats and tomatoes. Between the chapters, the author shares recipes.

The book opens with the author’s first marriage to an abusive husband and her second marriage to a controlling husband who reveals that the family owes a six-figure amount in back taxes. She escapes the second husband to a good job with financial stability in another state, but ultimately returns to the mountains.

The book bounces between family stories of many generations struggling to survive in the mountains and her contemporary experience learning how to be a farmer. Each time she tries something new, such as raising chickens for eggs, or goats for milk, or farming vegetables, she always does her research. However, when she begins the projects, she always ignores the research, and it always is disastrous.

The author makes an interesting observation in the beginning of the book which makes me consider this memoir as a cautionary tale for parents. “And while what I should have learned from living a relatively privileged childhood was the value of hard work and frugality, what I learned instead was that money was not something with which I needed to be overly concerned. If and when I needed it, it would magically appear--like a genie.”

Another comment much later supports this interpretation. “Perhaps, to a more reasonable person, my grandmother’s stories might have seemed more like cautionary tales than inspirational ones.”

Personal note:  Though alcoholism is not mentioned in the book, virtually every occasion, either good or bad is accompanied by alcohol. I wondered if this was a cause or an effect.

Flat Broke with Two Goats by Jennifer McGaha is a rambling memoir glorifying the life of poor farmers. Also, a cautionary tale for people who do not take advice.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.