Henry Van Boorean made his own way—backstreet boxing, bootleg wine-making, and homemade fertilizer (spiked with roadkill). The Great Depression hit everyone hard. The people of Hopewell Valley, Kentucky, were unmoved. They had always been hit hard. With his polio-stricken wife, two raucous sons, a temperamental rooster, and a cast of eccentric characters, Van Boorean's Hill is the anti-Waltons...and decidely more true-to-life. A slice of Appalachian life in mid-twentieth century America.