Yeah he basically wrote a book full of a bunch of lies in which he shits all over kentucky, but also the entire appalachian region with just a whole truckload of baseless claims and completely made up “stories” of his upbringing that never happened. It’s all lies. Like @eestileib said, it just preyed on the prejudice big city people all over the country had about this region, having never actually been here at all. They think of Appalachia and think no shoes, inbred hillbillies who can’t even speak and don’t have running water. Vance wrote a NY TIMES BESTSELLER (how on earth did they approve that) that just made up a bunch of lies confirming all those prejudices. In reality Appalachia is one of the most unique, gorgeous, creative, wonderful places on earth. Of course it has its problems, but Vance would never write something about how beautiful and wonderful something is. He’d much rather write something that tears down and belittles people he knows nothing about.
As I said: he’s probably the #1 most hated human around this region.