Hillbilly Elegy

A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

By: J. D. Vance

Narrated by: J. D. Vance

Winner, 2017 APA Audie Awards - Nonfiction

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful 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.

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis - that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over 40 years, has been reported on 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.

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, his aunt, his uncle, his 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. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history.

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.

©2016 J. D. Vance (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Good book

I grew up in eastern Kentucky, still live there. I was actually driving to Jackson the day I finished the book to work. I have very mixed emotions about the story. But it makes you think, and see a little differently. Anyone wanting to understand a part of America that isn't really talked about, at least not this way should give it a try.

Interesting Insight

I appreciated the insight on so many levels. There was a lot of personal relavance for me and some big Ah-Ha moments. I like when he said that having a challenging childhood does not give you a perpetual get out of jail free card on parenting. I especially enjoyed the insight on liveing in "flight or fight" mode when you come from a lifetime of tramatic experiences.

The mist important away fir me was that at-risk children need good mentors in their life in order to break the cycle of struggle and trama. There are so many amazing organizations that assist with mentor matching for at-risk children. If you have the time to contribute to a child in need it is an amazing experience, however, if you do not have the time considering contributing your money.

I thank the author for having the courage to share the intimate details of his life with us to help us understand what walking in his shoes was like and how we can help.

Hillbillies: A Poem About the Whale

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, By J. D. Vance. This novel may be subtitled; the Scott Irish hillbilly story or the peoples of Appalachia, from Alabama to Georgia, from Ohio into New York State. The hard-working nature of these peoples helped bring our Union to industrial greatness, but these very same peoples are now mired in poverty, destitution; and chemical use to ease their very human pains. Their pain is what this story is about. The simile part of the story is the allusion that their deficiency is a lack of jobs. Mr. Vance tells us otherwise. This book is about habits that encourage social decay.

J.D. Vance grew up in the Appalachian milieu; notwithstanding that environment as he portrays it, he managed to obtain a degree from Yale, and establish a secure loving life. He tells the story in a narration encompassed in a New England educated well stated literary style much like Ishmael tells the story of Ahab, the Whale and the Pequod; in prose narrative. Hillbilly Elegy has its own Whale, just a little less apparent than in the Moby Dick version.

The first five chapters tell us of J.D. Vance’s young life, how his grandparents came to leave Kentucky for Ohio, how his mother and her siblings grew up in an ARCO steel town of Middletown, and how he came into being, how his mother went through men and how his saving grace were his grandparents who had some emotional frailties of their own but who became first grade surrogate parents giving him guidance and confidence.
I had heard much of this book from friends and business associates. I am now surprised that I was told by many the book is a damnation of the not literate, white working class – who have been denied jobs in the developing 21th century economy because their talents no longer match the job needs of our emerging economy. That analysis of this book is all wrong. This story about the American white working class is about the importance of love for and of family.

Then, Hillbilly Elegy provides us with a warning. Do not believe in politics. Because the Hillbillies do not have well-honed linear thinking; and thus, are prone to conspiracy chatter. The workers have not learned to ask analytic questions on their own. They accept condemnations of others too easily, because they are without optimism for their futures. Although this proceeded the 2016 elections it turns out to be a bit prescience; given that election’s results.

The final two theories presented about Hillbilly life are perhaps the most important in the book. Children suffer from the violence and non-stable family life they must live through for the balance of their lives. Finally, Vance tells us of the importance of family stability.
This is an ode to one of the essential cores of America our Scott Irish heritage. It tells us who we are, and why we are now wounded. This short book is recommended to all Americans. Per Mr. Vance (with whom I agree): Politicians will not make America Great Again. Family values will.

hope and fear

this book gives me the chills as well as gives me hope for our future.

Meaning that will last.

Loved it. For someone who similarly struggled to find life's direction amidst many hardships, someone that "statistically should not have persevered," I found hope, knowledge, and a few good laughs.

A wonderful read

Wasn’t sure what to expect with this book. It turned out to be an absolutely wonderful read. Captivating. Quick. Sad. Funny. Inspirational. Honest. Loved his ending and talking about how childhood trauma destroys lives permanently and how it’s not up to government to totally solve the problem. It’s going to take lots of effort by families, neighbors, providers, news people and more. Also how important social networks are to people’s success.

A personal perspective on a cultural crisis in heartland America

JD Vance gives us some perspective on hillbilly culture. What it’s like and what it means to him to have grown up in “the holler”, a place in relatively rural Appalachia where unemployment, economic collapse, ignorance i.e. lack of education, drugs and alcohol all combine to break down families.

He seems to say that religion can help fight against some of these hostile forces against family culture, but loving and caring individuals, like his grandparents who actively looked out for him and his sister and one another, were the most compelling characters responsible for him making it out. They supported and allowed him the opportunity to succeed. Various family members provided discipline to him and gave him the encouragement to stay clean, to get educated, leave ignorance behind and to leave poverty behind. He emphasizes the important roles played by various members of his fragmented family.

One of the most important books of our time

I had no idea what a hillbilly I am, nor how much it has impacted my development. I grew up in the Palouse of the Northwest and this describes close parallels to my experience. We were maybe one shade higher in the class scale but upward mobility in my experience has been inhibited by many of the same factors. I have two small children and am eager to provide them the proper support for achieving their potential and this book expresses the hope and potential we can all do so with the right attitudes.

Best Read/Listen in a long time.

Honestly written. Gives a window into a child's experience and into his adulthood. Against many odds and with the love of family, support of Grandparents the best they knew how, he navigated through obstacles triumphantly. I truly enjoyed your story. Your narration couldn't have been better. This should be required reading for high school students. Well done JD!!

True

I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did. I bought it because I’ve always wanted to write a memoir, but didn’t know where to start. I figured picking up a recent best selling memoir would give me an idea of where to start. After reading it, I don’t think I’ll be writing one anytime soon. Not because the task is too daunting. Often, with fiction, I’ll read something and think I could never possibly write as beautifully as so-and-so. The writing in this wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t Shakespeare, nor was it supposed to be, nor should it have been. It was the perfect voice for the story. The reason I don’t see me writing one any time soon is because Mr. Vance already said most of what I would have. His story, and way of telling it, was so relatable I often thought he was talking about me. He and I certainly have some similarities in our lives, but no one would look at the two lives and call them the same. Yet his method of story-telling made his life relatable. He just did a good job. Must be that Yale education.