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    Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
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    Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
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    Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
    Ebook270 pages5 hours

    Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

    By J. D. Vance

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Coming November 2020 as a major motion picture from Netflix starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close

    ‘The political book of the year’ Sunday Times

    ‘A frank, unsentimental, harrowing memoir … A superb book’ New York Post

    ‘I bought this to try to better understand Trump’s appeal … but the memoir is so much more than that. A gripping, unputdownable page-turner’ India Knight, Evening Standard

    J. D. Vance grew up in the hills of Kentucky. His family and friends were the people most of the world calls rednecks, hillbillies or white trash.

    In this deeply moving memoir, Vance tells the story of his family’s demons and of America ’ s problem with generational neglect. How his mother struggled against, but never fully escaped, the legacies of abuse, alcoholism, poverty and trauma. How his grandparents, ‘dirt poor and in love’, gave everything for their children to chase the American dream. How Vance beat the odds to graduate from Yale Law School. And how America came to abandon and then condescend to its white working classes, until they reached breaking point.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateAug 6, 2016
    ISBN9780008219758
    Author

    J. D. Vance

    J.D. Vance grew up in the Rust Belt city of Middletown, Ohio, and the Appalachian town of Jackson, Kentucky. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school and served in Iraq. A graduate of the Ohio State University and Yale Law School, he has contributed to the National Review and the New York Times, and works as an investor at a leading venture capital firm. Vance lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his family.

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    Reviews for Hillbilly Elegy

    3.5/5

    2,062 ratings172 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Life in the poorest areas of America.I had a mixed reaction to this book. I enjoyed the personal element and family anecdotes, but they were interspersed with 'sociobabble' - analyses and comment that I felt would have been better suited to a thesis.Truth be told, I've stopped more than once, because I was bored. I'm also finding this account somewhat repetitive, but I had to finish it today for our book group discussion.It has been compared with The Glass Castle, but I was definitely more invested in that memoir.What I enjoyed of Vance's accounts were the personal family stories; his Gran nearly murdering someone at the age of 12 and his experiences in the marine boot camp. His family was very poor, but not just by financial standards, as J.D. himself explains later on, they lacked education in basic nutrition and suffered from severely rotting teeth due to an over-consumption of Mountain Dew and other sweet soda drinks. They did not realise how their violent and abusive behaviour impacted on their children, causing stresses that many never totally recovered from. They passed on what they had known and continued a cycle from which there appeared to be no escape.This book has been touted as the explanation for why people voted for Trump, but having read it I can't say I am any the wiser. I can see that Obama was mistrusted and a lot of false news intensified that, but to vote for a president who was obviously so entitled, seems to me to go against all that Mr Vance had been trying to explain about his background.In spite of my criticisms, I have learned a lot about this area of America and how its inhabitants think. My book group gave it a mixed response, between 3 and 4 stars; some interesting discussion.
    • 5/5
      I was fortunate enough to listen to this book, read by the author. He grew up in Kentucky, in a family that struggled with addiction and poverty. Vance expressed love for his grandparents, who supported him when he really had no other parental figures in his life, love for his community, and also concern for it as its struggles are continual and don't seem to be seeing solutions quickly. Engaging and compelling.
    • 3/5
      This is the argument against the cries of "white privilege" that shows the struggle of poor white families trying to break from their culture of poverty and the mindset that traps them there.
    • 4/5
      I found this to be a very interesting read. Like many I thought it would offer insight into the mentality of a part of the country that voted for Trump. That is not what this book is about (although it does provide descriptions of circumstances that might explain the voting).

      What I found most interesting was hearing from an "insider" about a community, a people, who although they live in the same country as I do, have access to the same media, news content, books, music, movies etc, are really very different from the people I know. The Appalachian community he describes is as foreign to me as that of the community from another, rather poor country.

      This is a personal story, although the author references studies to bring context to his observations. He seems to feel equally as uncomfortable in his Ivy League surroundings as he did in his mother's home. He has ventured out of the community and now sees it from two differing perspectives. Looking back Vance sees the problems there were/are in his community, but does not presume to offer the solutions.

      Vance writes about Social Capitol, about how he was never taught that there were programs to help kids like him go to College, he never knew that Ivy League schools would offer him more financial aid than State schools, he didn't know how to present himself at an interview, use the proper cutlery, write a resume, choose a wine, balance a checkbook or shop around for a better loan rate. He finds the idea of pajamas hilarious. We forget that somewhere along the line someone has to teach us the social skills/norms one needs to feel confident while pulling oneself up by the bootstraps. He was finally taught/told while at Yale, that who you know is as important as what you know. These are life lessons that can be incorporated in a school curriculum, as can topics such as financial literacy etc.

      There are no solutions provided in this book, the one conclusion I was came away with is that having people in your life who can support, guide and enlighten you can make the difference between success or failure. Vance was very fortunate in that he had many such mentors and he was smart enough to listen to them.
    • 3/5
      Rated: C+Interesting reflection on the authors life struggles growing up in the hillbilly culture of Kentucky and Ohio. Interesting social commentary base on his own experience and as reflected it studies he references. He was on to the few to brake free and rise to the top of his profession.
    • 5/5
      From Mamaw's foul mouth to J.D. Vance's easy going, chatty way of writing, this memoir was entertaining, eye-opening, and enlightening.

      I think one of the most important things I took away from this, is the way "we" think. "We" meaning internally, about ourselves. We have these notions because of our influences, our upbringing, and how we perceive the world around us, and make our own individual decisions (assumptions in many cases) about what is, can be, or should be. What Vance pointed out, for example, was how he thought only someone rich and/or with connections, could ever attend Yale. (he attended) Yet, it turns out that's not the case at all, anyone has just as good a chance, and it can cost much less for that individual.

      With his particularly dysfunctional background, and dysfunctional it was, he began to question why his folks, or anyone for that matter, would think they couldn't achieve these same things, such as that higher education, as someone more privileged. He was able to draw many conclusions, too many to give here. It came down to both complicated, and simple reasons. There was a term "social capital," (knowing/having connections with the right people) and being ignorant of the things a lot of us take for granted.

      It's definitely the book to read in the current political climate if you want to understand anything about the Trump win - or simply to understand a different way of life. I could connect with a lot of this - although my family are not hillbillies. Yet there are/were many parallels here, and there were many moments as I read along where I was thinking, "exactly!" or "wow that sounds like "Aunt and Uncle XXXX." I'm glad I read this book.
    • 4/5
      An inside look at the obstacles inherent in growing up poor and white in Appalachia. The descriptions of Vance's childhood and family dynamics are heartbreaking, not that he's looking for any pity. The despair and alienation are self-perpetuating unless there is some positive force for change, and the author found his primarily in his grandparents--in spite of their own many problems and what might seem like anti-social behavior.
    • 4/5
      Well-written memoir of a young man who grew up in a culture of fractured family ties, chronic unemployment, and an atmosphere of hopelessness, yet managed to survive and succeed.

      Late in the book, he turns his eye to what kinds of factors contributed both to the dreadful situations of his youth and to the positive influences that allowed him to escape them. My only quibble is that he assigns both negative and positive influences to his "hillbilly" culture. I think it's more pervasive than that, and infiltrates many former working-class neighborhoods nationwide.
    • 5/5
      Having grown up in Appalachia, I understand this story on personal familiar. While I avoided many of the experiences personally, I do recall the attitude acutely.
    • 5/5
      This work is an eye opening look at a section of America we often prefer to ignore. Powerful reading and honest experience! Kudos to Mr. Vance!
    • 3/5
      Interesting memoir written by an author who grew up in the hillbilly culture - his words, not mine. I was a little disappointed in the ending. Beyond that, there's not much more I can say about this book.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book...it was thoughtful, supported with some research, and resonated with me and I'm sure many readers.
    • 4/5
      Author and lawyer J.D. Vance presents a slice of America that many of us are unaware exists. He relates many events that have happened in his family and to himself with frank and unabashed honesty. He has risen above and beyond his beginnings, but he has not turned his back on his roots. He tells of fist fights because of slights of honor. He speaks of drunken behavior, drug abuse, child abuse, and so much more. But he also lays out the problems that still continue: in a country that offers so much to so many, there are still hungry children who fear their parents, and yet are too afraid to tell anyone about it. You might not agree with everything he says, and you might wonder how the problem can be fixed, or even if it can, but regardless, Vance has stirred our emotions and given us something to ponder.
    • 5/5
      I wish that every single person I know would read this book. What an amazing look into a single family's existence. There were so many events and situations that put me in mind of the people where I grew up in rural New York. I honestly feel that social/class/economic divisions are even more influential to the disruption in our country than even race or gender issues.
    • 3/5
      5507. Hillbilly Elegy A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J. D. Vance (read 14 Oct 2017) This book, published in 2016, by a man born 2 August 1984 in Middletown, Ohio, into a seriously dysfunctional family with its roots in the hillbilly country of Jackson, Kentucky, who tells of his mother's behavior which one instinctively feels he should not broadcast to the world--but that of course is what makes the book so gripping. Though the author did poorly in high school after he graduated he joined the Marine Corp and served in Iraq, tough not in a combat role. He then attended Ohio State and managed to get into Yale Law, where he made law review and met the woman he apparently lived with and then married..He takes a few swipes at the misuse of welfare, which apparently makes right-wingers love the book although he decries the fact that so many hillbilly type folk stupidly think Obama was not born in the USA--as Donald Trump apparently also thought. Trump is not mentioned in the book but one can see that the weirder hillbillies would be enamored by his talk and attitude. I found the book consistently interesting and readable, though not overly profound.
    • 4/5
      Author J.D. Vance's family roots are deep in the hills of Kentucky. But when jobs became scarce, generations of his family and their neighbors moved out of the hills and into the Middleton Ohio area for mill jobs.They brought with them many of their customs and beliefs.These were fiercely independent people. They brought with them a strong sense of family – but unfortunately this sometimes included broken families, addictions and child abuse. Many of them had lived in abject poverty, but refused government help which would have given their children a better chance at education and life. They looked down on those receiving such help.They also looked down on government regulations.One incident that I found both amusing and enlightening was that of one family bringing a few chickens into their city backyard. A neighbor was appalled at seeing chickens butchered outside her window. A zoning board got involved and chickens were outlawed in the 'burbs. The relatives' reaction? “#?#Xing zoning board stay out of my life.”This book is included in The New York Times list of 'Six Books to Help you Understand Trumps's Win' which was published in November of 2016.Will I ever understand Trump's supporters? Probably not, but this is an interesting description of the evolution of some of their populist views.
    • 4/5
      Highly Recommend! More thoughtful review to come when I have a few moments.
    • 2/5
      This was a pick for my book club. I had heard that this was a really interesting and good book, however I didn't really enjoy it. It might have been the format (I listened to it on audiobook). I thought as a memoir it was OK. The stories he tells of his family, his education and his childhood were definitely interesting, but I didn't really agree with the political statements or very blanket over generalizations he made about "hillbillies". I wish JD Vance had just left it as "A Memoir of a Family in Crisis".
    • 5/5
      Even though I don’t necessarily agree with his politics and I feel like this book is written a bit like a formal paper for school, I loved this book!

      I feel like the author and the people described in this book might have been someone I knew growing up. Vance caused me to think about many of the people around me and re-examine my thoughts about being poor in America. I think anyone who works with the poor (I’m looking at you librarians) should read this book.

    • 5/5
      Author J.D. Vance narrates this audio edition of Hillbilly Elegy. Wow! I loved this book. The author tells his story of growing up poor in Middletown, Ohio with a cast of dysfunctional characters that makes your head dizzy - an absent father, a mother who marries five different times, violent but fiercely loyal aunts and uncles. The hillbilly world that J.D. inhabits is marked by childhood pregnancies, domestic abuse, a poor diet, drug use and not enough money. Few make it to college. The saving grace for J.D. was that his grandparents, with whom he lived with off and on, were always there for him. They were the ones to leave Kentucky for a better life in Ohio. Without their encouragement and support J.D. would probably never have made it out of Ohio. After high school J.D. enlists in the Marine Corps, takes advantage of the GI Bill, and then graduates from Ohio State in less than two years while holding down two jobs. Ultimately he receives a law degree from Yale Law School and is now happily married to a woman he met in law school. The author proclaims that there is no government solution to fix the plight of the poor white population that he writes about. However having some kind of mentor whether it be a family member, a teacher, a friend's parent, can make all the difference in envisioning a better life.
    • 3/5
      Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis J.D. Vance July 31, 2017 I finished this book during the July 4th weekend at the Villani Lake House in Pennsylvania. I am very behind on reading and recording books, because I have been very busy at work.  The first few chapters of the book were very engaging, describing Vance's experiences with his extended family in Ohio and the hill country of Kentucky.  The family was related to the McCoys of the Hatfield and McCoy feud, and had the same unbending codes of honor, and revenge.  His grandmother was a particularly formidable person, capable of realistically threatening to shoot someone, and possibly even guilty of killing someone who trespassed.  The next generation moved to industrial towns in the Ohio River valley, and they began to drink and do drugs, neglecting children, but retaining their sense of stubborn independence and honor.  Vance endures foster care, supervision by social services, living occasionally with his grandmother.  His mother is in and out of residential treatment for drug addiction.  He inherits the instinct to fight for honor, and his family.  He eventually joins the Marines At that point, he starts to describe his college years and Yale Law, and the book becomes a banal autobiography, without much impact.  In the end, I do not think he proves his thesis that the inbred honor and family secrecy of the hillbillies is a major constraint on their success.
    • 3/5
      There was a lot of hype about this book and I fell for it. I know people who would fit into the catergory of Hillbilly as defined by the author. I feel that he over generalizes and perpetuates many of the commonly held stereotypes about this group of people. This book is part memoir and part sociological theory. I was very disappointed about the first part of the book. I wanted a fresh look instead of one that pervades our cultures.His mother was addict and his father left the family. So he was raised by his grandparents, Mamaw and Papaw. Mamaw believed that the way to get ahead was more education. There were many times when the family depended on her wisdom despite that she almost killed a man in the past. For me, the book got better when the author put aside sociological theory and concentrated on his memoirs.I especially liked the way he talked about his Marine Corps training. There is something inherent in the training that makes creates the image of success. Also to be exposed to people growing and learning instead of separated into a slow learner group seems to inspire people with the idea that they can do it. I would have liked this book more if the author had reflected more on what the dynamics were and and not promoted the shame that he felt as a hillbilly.
    • 4/5
      The reason fiction is often preferable to nonfiction is that nonfiction tends to read like a textbook. Not so with HILLBILLY ELEGY, J.D. Vance’s own story of his life as and among Appalachian hillbillies and his analysis of the hillbilly culture. Vance has already received so much praise for this book, it seems unnecessary to heap on more. But I am.Even though HILLBILLY ELEGY isn’t like a textbook, you’ll learn from it and take something away from it. In my case, this book contributes to my understanding of some of the people around me. Although I am not from the South, many hillbillies have migrated north and west for better jobs. The people I know are their children and their children’s children in Michigan and Arizona. I see some of what Vance describes.I won’t give my interpretation of what Vance says. That would not be fair to what he wrote here or to your understanding of it.
    • 4/5
      One of the most important memoirs when it comes to understanding the little pockets of the country where, when threatened, some will resort to anything to protect their way of life.
    • 4/5
      Mr. Vance has created a memoir which treads the fine line between memory and analysis. It walks that touchy territory well and the result i both readable and insightful. The Scotch Irish ethos which was originally created on the English-Scottish border and translocated to North American is terribly important, both nationally, and world wide. It is a mindset that has formed institutions and gene pools. J.D. has the benefit of escaping that ethos, and the process of escape has illuminated both the ethos and the methods of freeing oneself from it. Freeing oneself, for to remain in it is to following the familiar arch of previous mindsets which in the long run first advance those gains in civilization that we have made, and then after giving its tributes to the life of the mind and the emotions, imprisons the spirit and actively combats the next step. This is a history of a family, and how one of its members came to be dissatisfied with the world he was born into and of the methods, and sadly the accidents that allowed him to create a fuller and freer life for himself and the next generation of his family. Working class america reached a crisis of expectations in the last half of the twentieth century when large numbers of factory jobs disappeared, and with it the answers to the traditional working class question. That question, since the Renaissance has been "how am I going to survive and raise the next generation if I do not have the inherited wealth and social / educational property to get money from the work of others?" Lacking the ownership of the right property what can an individual do to make enough money by labour to survive? J.D. has no big answer, fortunately he did have enough intellectual skills and potential to make an individual success. For the vast bulk of his contemporaries, and especially those of the "Hillbilly" mindset, (and White, Black and any other colour of humn is now in the "HillBilly" condition), the answer is to accept a life that falls far short of the possibilities humans used to enjoy. He has given us a possible pattern, and I hope he can reach enough people to substantially alter the future we face. Read it and re-act.
    • 3/5
      Good to read this....but it should have been less autobiographical and more sociological/political. I would recommend it though!
    • 3/5
      This is the much heralded memoir of a Yale Law School graduate who came from Kentucky "hillbilly" stock but was mostly raised in rust-belt Ohio. His mother was a drug addict who ran through a succession of men; His "mamaw" was more nurturing but hotheaded and sometimes violent. Vance talks about finding his way to normalcy through the Marines, which gave him the discipline to overcome his undisciplined upbringing.I'm not sure why this is getting so much praise. The memoir part was interesting enough, but his attempt to generalize from his experience doesn't work; his conclusions are based on more cliche than on data. My book group agreed that if a woman had written this, it would be just another Oprah-worthy confessional, but since it's a man, it's automatically Universal and Important. Weirdly, the book has been discussed as if it has something important to say about the much coveted WWC, but it really doesn't offer anything that will be useful to any political party. In setting the blame for WWC troubles in their own lack of morality and discipline, it flies in the face of what the Berniecrats and Trumpians say.
    • 4/5
      Reading 'Hillbilly Elegy' (Vance, 2016), based on Vance's theoretical perspective, I see why working class, White Trumpians worship a juvenile, hyper-masculine, junk-food-consuming, tv character who takes, never gives his all to anything, and plays victim. And, probably most telling in my point of view, I see why he represents the Middletown, Ohio, ideal that one does not have to work hard or take responsibility for one's own choices to achieve everything. I feel Vance's reason may extend an explanation for upper-class, White Trumpian devotion (though Vance does not himself extend such an explanation): that there is the ideal that at a certain socio-econmic level, everything should just be handed to one and fiercely protected for privileged consumption whether or not consumption is deserved or earned.

      I do not know if I agree with all of Vance's thesis. He is admittedly a conservative strongly promoting boot-strap mentality positing if he made it with hard work so should everyone else -- a perspective my bleeding, liberal heart rails against. Still, I find myself agreeing with him that policy can only help so much if there is no communal structure willing to help itself. I also find myself shaking my head in agreement that there exists a certain reasoning among some working class that preaches a good sermon on hard work but expects everything handed to them. (To be fair, I also scowl at the secure class who espouse the beauty of liberal meritocracy but establish, maintain, and protect classist socio-economic systems doing nothing to advance anyone based solely on merit.) Vance speculates some of this comes from hopelessness. I am only willing to extend that speculation as far as the outcome of the 2016 election that brought an idol into the White House that defies common sense. They elected someone who will do nothing to help anyone but himself hoping their idol will certainly do something in their favor. I think the question is what is that favorable something? I remain perplexed by a lack of plan I find in the Trump cause beyond inflicting chaos. Still, chaos may also explain what we witness today. Chaos plays a prominent role in Vance's thesis explaining the struggle of people living in chaos is they do not have the ability to make choices to escape the chaos.
    • 5/5
      This book has been the thing to talk about in political circles, especially progressive ones, for the past year; regretfully, I am a little late in getting around to reading it, but J.D. Vance’s short memoir is well worth the time. His chronicle of how he endured the dysfunction of growing up in a “hillbilly” family in Kentucky and southern Ohio and then ultimately achieving an Ivy League education at Yale and a law degree that will guarantee him a life far beyond the limited horizons of his forbearers. This book also presents an insider’s view of a genuine American subculture, that of the Scotch-Irish of Appalachia, a blood line that spread across much of the Old South, especially the mountains and hollers of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. Many would drift north in the mid 20th Century to find work in the factories of the industrial mid-west, taking their “hillbilly” ways with them. These were proud and contentious people who lived what outsiders would consider a hopelessly insular life, revolving around family, work and church.J.D. was born in 1984, after the end of the great post World War II boom that gave jobs to men like his grandfather in the Armco plant in Middletown, Ohio. Though they had achieved an outwardly middle class life, J.D.’s grandparents could never escape the worst aspects of the culture they came from, especially a tendency to fight and argue at even the slightest hint of disrespect and a distrust of strangers, not being the least among them; constant abuse of alcohol was another deadly trait. When the economic decline took hold, the lives of many in the working class would become filled with anger and apprehension, with drugs, alcohol and casual violence became the main forms of relief from this malaise. Young J.D.’s mother drifted from one relationship to another as her substance abuse problems worsened, while his father was not part of his life. But he had a rock to lean on in the persons of his mother’s parents, Mamaw and Papaw Vance, who gave him the love and stability to not only endure his rough environment, but ultimately, to rise above it. After high school, he did a stint in the Marine Corp, where he gained the discipline and focus to apply to the Yale School of Law.J.D. Vance is wonderfully candid about his early life, and his retelling of events and portraits of his family are spot on and unforgettable; Mamaw Vance is one of the most vivid characters I have met in any book –fiction included – in the past year. His honest, blow by blow accounts of family dysfunction, like his mother’s repeated meltdowns, can be painful to read, but it’s impossible not to turn the page. Also impressive is J.D.’s honesty in how terribly unprepared he was life in the world of upward social mobility, when he had not the slightest idea how to dress for a job interview with a recruiters from big law firms or even how to use a salad fork. But what has won this book so much renown is the picture it creates of, as the book cover says, “a culture in crisis.” This is the culture of working class America that has taking a beating ever since the Reagan era when the steel mills and manufacturing plants began moving overseas in search of cheap labor; and the jobs that didn’t move away were threatened by automation. We get a picture of a community plagued with underemployment and low wage service jobs, where opportunities for a better life lies elsewhere, yet where most refuse to make to effort at a better life, clinging to the old and the familiar, even as it drags them down. J.D. makes it clear that this poverty is a state of mind, a culture of “learned hopelessness,” where everyone believes that there is nothing they can do to improve their circumstances; that the system is against them, and always will be. His life refutes this belief, but he makes it clear that it takes people like his grandparents to give children the stability and love of learning necessary to the have the self confidence – as opposed to self esteem – to make something of themselves. This is a change which must come from within; there is no government program or tax cut for the rich that will impose it from the outside. It’s a brutally honest assessment that flies in the face of the orthodoxies of many sincere liberals and conservatives.I found myself agreeing with many of J.D.’s observations, such as how many working class Americans became disenchanted with the party FDR and JFK when it became associated with welfare and food stamps; how many in working class America felt that Obama was the embodiment of the Ivy League elitists who had been looking down on them since forever; how comments like “clinging to their religion and guns” was like spit in the face. I have many experiences in my own life that would back this up, and proves that not all the problems between Democrats and the white working class is a matter of racism. J.D. is a conservative, but he is clearly no member of the Tea Party, a rare political person capable of objective reasoning. He makes it plain that there is a role for government in improving the lives of the people of Appalachia, but that bureaucracy and arbitrary rules often make it ineffective.I’ve seen on more than one online review of HILLBILLY ELEGY by readers like me on such sights as Amazon, Goodreads and Librarything, many of them having come from the same part of the country as the author or from a similar background. Some of them heartily agree with him, others take him to task for being too dismissive of blue collar workers and over estimating the benefits of college and a professional life – that those successful families have more than little of the same “hillbilly” dysfunction in them. Others dislike his insistence that it is solely on the individual to improve his circumstances, that no one can do it all on their own. Many readers relate real life experiences that either affirm or deny J.D. assertions. This is what a real discussion looks like, and it is being done in a polite, but vigorous manner, and not like one of those “national conversations” that politicians are always talking about, the kind where one side lectures and hectors the other; where no one learns anything.I do wonder what the progressives who champion this book so much will ultimately get out of it? Do they think this explains why Trump beat Clinton so badly among the white working class? Will they stop being so condescending when they say that the white working class always “votes against their interests?” If it makes them realize that change cannot be made by a bunch of well meaning “experts” in a room in Washington D.C. and then imposed from the top down; that culture is more than an affinity for the Confederate flag, pickup trucks, and desire to listen to Toby Keith. If so, then maybe they might learn something. But I doubt it.Back around 2006, I heard a young DeeJay on a Northern Virginia/Washington D.C. talk radio station refer to the young men and women fighting in Iraq as “dopey kids,” bamboozled by military recruiters. He could make this observation, he said, because he was a recent college graduate and listened to a lot of rap and hip hop, which meant he knew what was really going on the world. Among those so-called “dopey kids” serving his country in Iraq at that time was J.D. Vance. Not long after, that DeeJay was fired, and never heard from again. We know what happened to J.D.
    • 5/5
      SummaryJ.D. Vance should have ended up like all the others who grew up around him in poverty, with drug addictions, and jobless. He should have been "stuck"; however, with the fierceness of the people around him, he was able to move out and up. His story should end with graduating from Yale Law School, and he should be considered a successful story of pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps. The problem with that stereotype is that it doesn't take into consideration the consequences growing up within a failing culture that is America's white working class. The idea of "just getting out" isn't as simple as many want it to be. The crisis that Vance describes in Appalachia isn't one that can be shaken off and forgotten. Vance does an incredible job of showing that to readers. Upward mobility isn't just a social climb that can be affected by geography. There are much deeper issues within which to delve if we are to address the crisis of working class whites, including psychological, cultural, social, medical, and educational issues to name only a few. Yes, J.D. Vance is a success. Yes, he made it out. But, his story and many others like it were far from over as they crossed state lines. What I LikedThe historical details - Appalachian Regional Commission/ Lyndon JohnsonJackson, KY to Ohio via Route 23the migratory flow between Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigangrowing up in the "holler" catching "minners" and "crawdads"Kentucky coal countryMiddletuckyHatfields and McCoys in Appalachia compared to The SopranosRon Selby, the Advanced Math teacher - "I had that kid in class; he's not smart enough to make a functioning bomb."Mamaw - As harsh as Mamaw Blanton's language (conversation with J.D. about why he was not gay made me laugh out loud, snort and spit my coffee fashion ;) ) and life could be, she loved her grandchildren...and had a truly soft heart for anyone in need. She definitely lived the "take care of everybody" lifestyle and loved to "spend time with those babies."Mamaw made sure J.D. had anything he needed, any time, any place. What an unconditional love this woman had for her grandson.Papaw - Despite his "bullshits" and his grouchiness, he never met a hug or kiss that he didn't welcome. (108)Papaw also loved J.D. In fact, he was J.D.'s father since his own biological father nor any of his mother's potential candidates could or would step up. Papaw taught J.D. how to shoot so well that in the Marine Corp, J.D. qualified with an M16 rifle as an expert. He also played math games with J.D. after a young J.D. came home one day worried about his lack of math skills. When Papaw died, J.D. spoke at his funeral:I stood up in that funeral home resolved to tell everyone just how important he was. "I never had a dad," I explained. "But Papaw was always there for me, and he taught me the things that men needed to know." Discussion of Religion - Organized religion was not something J.D.'s family nor many of the other families he knew spent much time on. This fact calls into question yet another stereotype about working class southern "conservatives." Despite the stereotype, J.D.'s biological father and his new family were the only real religious families that J.D. ever knew. Mamaw reassured J.D. that God never leaves your side. She believed that without a doubt, but she also believed that God helps the man who helps himself. Mamaw believed it was fine to pray to God for help with your problems, but you best be ready to do the work on your part as well.Psychological focus - Once J.D. became successful and "escaped" the trap, he had to deal with the conundrum of still seeing in himself some of the very behaviors he had worked so hard to get away from. Especially where relationships were concerned, J.D. had to re-learn much of what had been unconsciously taught to him during his childhood. In Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. presents rich research and sources to explain this phenomenon:"Significant stress in early childhood results in hyperresponsive or chronically activated physiologic stress response, along with increased potential for fear and anxiety.the part of the brain that deals with stress and conflict is always activated...the switch flipped indefinitely." (228)Educational focus - Even though J.D. received access to higher education via his service in the military, he needed more...and that doesn't mean just money. What so many see as common knowledge parts of the educational system are huge stumbling blocks to students who come in from the outside. The Ivory Tower isn't famous for welcoming outsiders and is well-known to throw gatekeeping devices in students' way. J.D. wasn't asking for special favors either. He honestly didn't realize what he even needed to ask for help with. Academics wasn't the problem. The largest roadblock was the system itself - institutional, political, and social...and much of it unconscious or accidental...the roadblocks of privilege.J.D. Vance's book made me pull back out some of my old textbooks on working class literacy...I haven't done that since I finished my last degree because I was exhausted with academia. For the first time in many years, my research brain is piqued, and I'm ready to re-visit some of those theories.What I Didn't LikeThere really wasn't anything about Vance's memoir that I didn't like as far as the book itself...there were more than a few things that made me very sad...so sad that I had to think about, analyze, and really process before writing my review. But, again, I think that's Vance's point.I wasn't crazy about J.D.'s mama...I don't "fault" her really, but I don't "forgive" her either. He was just a child, and he needed his mama. But, she wasn't there. She had a lot of extenuating circumstances, but that doesn't change the fact that she wasn't there.I was and am beyond glad that J.D. had other people around him to take care of him. J.D.'s mom did have a library card and made sure he had access to books. She herself became a nurse and cared deeply about "enterprises of the mind"...she was one of those moms who got carried away "revamping" a science fair project. Her own lack of education about how a man should treat a woman was unfortunately handed down to her own children tenfold and exacerbated by her quest to find a suitable father for J.D. and Lindsay..."adventures" which pulled them further and further away from being able to live within a stable family environment.And, then, there were the drugs. Drugs for which she was probably given a prescription but very quickly lost control of.Addiction is a huge issue...a crisis of epidemic proportions.Overall RecommendationAmericans tend to have pretty egocentric views about the world and even within our own borders. Vance's book Hillbilly Elegy reminded me a lot of Jeannette Walls The Glass Castle, two books I think everybody needs to experience.