hood-to-the-holler

[Ostap]

Hello everybody. I ran across an expression, "hood-to-the-holler". Googling, I found this review:

From the Hood to the Holler

Kentucky State Representative Charles Booker tells the improbable story of his journey from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country to a political career forging new alliances among forgotten communities across the New South and beyond.âCharles Booker is a rising leader in our nation...

books.google.com.ua

So, hood probaly means neighbourhood. If so, what is "holler"?

 

[Skrej]

'Holler' is regional dialect pronunciation of the word 'hollow' in the Appalachian region, but especially in Kentucky, for a narrow valley between two hills or mountains.

 

[Ostap]

And what does the whole expression mean? (sorry, it's still unclear to me)

 

[jutfrank]

He started out life in the 'hood and ended up in the holler. The book is about this journey.

The expression takes the form 'from A to B' and is used to talk about a journey, very often a life journey such as here.

 

[probus]

It is not, however, a standard expression in AmE. In addition, the direction of the journey is very unusual. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have migrated to cities from the "hollers" of West Virginia and Kentucky. A journey in the opposite direction is vanishingly rare.