Hillbilly Elegy
"Vance, a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, provides an account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck. The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.'s grandparents were "dirt poor and in love," and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance's grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America."--Publisher's description.
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Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
272 pages
What’s it about?
J.D. Vance is thirty years old and a former marine, Iraq war veteran, and Yale Law School graduate. J.D. struggles through school and often feels overwhelmed as a child. Through his journey we look at a culture in crisis. Through J.D. Vance’s eyes we feel how limited his life often felt.
What did it make me think about?
This book made me much more aware of another perspective. A perspective we have not heard much about until recently. However, this book did not make me feel like their were easy solutions to the problems we are facing as a nation.
Should I read it?
This was an quick book to read. I appreciated what Mr. Vance was trying to say, and he certainly puts a face and voice to another problem in America.
Quote-
“In our race-conscious society, our vocabulary often extends no further than the color of someone’s skin- “black people’, “Asians”, “white privilege”. Sometimes these broad categories are useful, but to understand my story, you have to delve into the details. I may be white, but I do not identify with the WASPs of the Northeast. Instead, I identify with the Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree. To these folks, poverty is the family tradition- their ancestors were day laborers in the Southern slave economy, share-croppers after that, and machinists and millworkers during more recent times. Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks or white trash. I call them neighbors, friends, and family.”
If you like this try-
All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg
Ghettoside by Jill Leovy
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
272 pages
What’s it about?
J.D. Vance is thirty years old and a former marine, Iraq war veteran, and Yale Law School graduate. J.D. struggles through school and often feels overwhelmed as a child. Through his journey we look at a culture in crisis. Through J.D. Vance’s eyes we feel how limited his life often felt.
What did it make me think about?
This book made me much more aware of another perspective. A perspective we have not heard much about until recently. However, this book did not make me feel like their were easy solutions to the problems we are facing as a nation.
Should I read it?
This was an quick book to read. I appreciated what Mr. Vance was trying to say, and he certainly puts a face and voice to another problem in America.
Quote-
“In our race-conscious society, our vocabulary often extends no further than the color of someone’s skin- “black people’, “Asians”, “white privilege”. Sometimes these broad categories are useful, but to understand my story, you have to delve into the details. I may be white, but I do not identify with the WASPs of the Northeast. Instead, I identify with the Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree. To these folks, poverty is the family tradition- their ancestors were day laborers in the Southern slave economy, share-croppers after that, and machinists and millworkers during more recent times. Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks or white trash. I call them neighbors, friends, and family.”
If you like this try-
All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg
Ghettoside by Jill Leovy
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
I chose this book to fulfill the "problems facing society today" prompt in the 2018 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge. Being a "hillbilly" myself from Appalachia via West Virginia, I could really relate to what J.D had to say and it really resonated with me. But even aside from the cultural similarities of our backgrounds I think this book has a lot to say to anyone willing to pick it up and read it with an open mind. I think you will find it fairly well written with a level of sophistication despite some of the vernacular utilized, though to be true to his [hillbilly] roots (and mine) it is both warranted and needed. Despite how some may interpret the title, admittedly myself included, this is not a book of bigotry or political rhetoric to further divide our cultures and classes but geared towards enlightenment and empowerment to both inform and uplift so that our cultures and society as a whole may unify in tackling a very real issue facing our country today. I read this book in 2 days. I found it to be highly intriguing and definitely recommend.
Excellent autobiographical account of the culture of poverty in the Deep South of America. He writes from personal experience growing up in a dysfunctional family with a drug addicted mother and a range of ‘fathers’ who pass through his home. He had a very strong matriarchal grandmother who insisted that Vance had to get an education. His commentary and research on the ingrained white poverty makes it an interesting historical text.
Fantastic! The insights about social constructs and generational struggles that J.D. observes through his life is very very interesting. I learned a lot! This book is so well written, easy to read, and inspirational. Everyone should read this one, regardless of your political party. PS the movie reflects the life story but not the observations JD finds on his way out of poverty. As usual, the book is better.
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