Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
A #1 New York Times Best Seller and soon to be a Major-Motion Picture, Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. 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. A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.
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Community Reviews
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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