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Hillbilly Elegy
- A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
- Narrated by: J. D. Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
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Publisher's summary
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.
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By: Jane Isay
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Have a New Teenager by Friday
- From Mouthy and Moody to Respectful and Responsible in 5 Days
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- Narrated by: Kirby Heybourne
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
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Congratulations! You have a teenager in your home. Life will never quite be the same again (of course, you already know that). But it can be better than you’ve ever dreamed. In fact, you’re just five days away from your teenager asking, “What can I do to help?” Guaranteed! With his signature wit and commonsense psychology, internationally recognized family expert and New York Times best-selling author Dr. Kevin Leman will help you. your teenager’s life. With Dr. Leman’s instinct and insight, plus an index with gutsy advice on 75 hot-button issues that keep parents up at night.
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Listen with a Critical Mind
- By Stephanie on 03-25-13
By: Kevin Leman
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Normal Gets You Nowhere
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- Narrated by: Kelly Cutrone
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
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With Normal Gets You Nowhere, Kelly Cutrone invites us to get our freak on. History is full of successful, world-changing people who did not fit in. Think Nelson Mandela, Joan of Arc, Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, John Lennon, and Rosa Parks. Instead of changing themselves to accommodate the status quo or what others thought they should be, these people hung a light on their differences - and changed humanity in the process. “I know you don’t feel normal, so why are you trying to act it and prove to everyone you are?” Cutrone says.
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For open minds and hearts.
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By: Kelly Cutrone
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Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed
- Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids
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- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the main topics of cultural conversation during the last decade was the supposed "fertility crisis" and whether modern women could figure out a way to have it all - a successful, demanding career and the required 2.3 children - before their biological clocks stopped ticking. Now, however, conversation has turned to whether it's necessary to have it all (see Anne-Marie Slaughter) or, perhaps more controversial, whether children are really a requirement for a fulfilling life.
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Am I the only sane childfree woman in here?
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By: Meghan Daum
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When They Call You a Terrorist
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When They Call You a Terrorist is the essential audiobook for every conscientious American. From one of the cofounders of the Black Lives Matter movement comes a poetic audiobook memoir and reflection on humanity. Necessary and timely, Patrisse Cullors' story asks us to remember that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love.
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Everyone should listen!
- By Mary J. Bunker on 01-26-18
By: Patrisse Cullors, and others
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To Obama
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Every evening for eight years, at his request, President Obama was given 10 handpicked letters written by ordinary American citizens - the unfiltered voice of a nation - from his Office of Presidential Correspondence. He was the first president to interact daily with constituent mail and to archive it in its entirety. In To Obama, Jeanne Marie Laskas interviews President Obama, the letter writers themselves, and the White House staff who sifted through the powerful, moving, and incredibly intimate narrative of America during the Obama years:
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a must have audible book or print, it will amaze u
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The Pursuit of Happyness (Abridged)
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At the age of 20, Chris Gardner arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. However, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm, Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him part of the city's working homeless with his toddler son.
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Very Good Story!
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Modern Loss
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At a time when we mourn public figures and national tragedies with hashtags, where intimate posts about loss go viral and we receive automated birthday reminders for dead friends, it's clear we are navigating new terrain without a road map. Let's face it: Most of us have always had a difficult time talking about death and sharing our grief. We're awkward and uncertain; we avoid, ignore, or even deny feelings of sadness; we offer platitudes; we send sympathy bouquets whittled out of fruit.
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Not What I Was Expecting
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It Was All a Dream
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- By: Reniqua Allen
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Reniqua Allen tells the stories of Black millennials searching for a better future in spite of racist policies that have closed off traditional versions of success. Many watched their parents and grandparents play by the rules, only to sink deeper and deeper into debt. They witnessed their elders fight to escape cycles of oppression for more promising prospects, largely to no avail. Today, in this post-Obama era, they face a critical turning point. Interweaving her own experience, Allen shares surprising stories of hope and ingenuity.
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Great statistics and facts
- By Eve on 05-18-19
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The Gift of Our Wounds
- A Sikh and a Former White Supremacist Find Forgiveness After Hate
- By: Pardeep Singh Kaleka, Arno Michaelis, Robin Gaby Fisher
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When white supremacist Wade Michael Page murdered six people and wounded four in a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin in 2012, Pardeep Kaleka was devastated. The temple leader, now dead, was his father. His family, who had immigrated to the US from India when Pardeep was young, had done everything right. Why was this happening to him? Arno Michaelis, a former skinhead and founder of one of the largest racist skinhead organizations in the world, knew he had to take action and fight against the very crimes he used to commit.
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The Gift
- By M. Forsberg on 07-29-22
By: Pardeep Singh Kaleka, and others
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To the End of June
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Who are the children of foster care? What, as a country, do we owe them? Cris Beam, a foster mother herself, spent five years immersed in the world of foster care looking into these questions and tracing firsthand stories. The result is To the End of June, an unforgettable portrait that takes us deep inside the lives of foster children in their search for a stable, loving family. Beam shows us the intricacies of growing up in the system - the back-and-forth with agencies, the rootless shuffling between homes, the emotionally charged tug between foster and birth parents.
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Good dissertation
- By Nim on 03-13-19
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The Meaning of Matthew
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The mother of Matthew Shepard shares her story about her son's death and the choice she made to become an international gay rights activist.
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Heart breaking story
- By sherry on 08-10-12
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Vance brings us a gripping account of growing up in a poor midwestern town. From a broader level, he offers us a unique, penetrating look at the struggles of America's white working class. The timing of his audiobook is appropriate - its publication comes at a time the plight of the white working class has been thrust to the forefront of the country's social and political discourse.
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awful
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Ramp Hollow
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Appalachia - among the most storied and yet least understood regions in America - has long been associated with poverty and backwardness. But how did this image arise, and what exactly does it mean? In Ramp Hollow, Steven Stoll launches an original investigation into the history of Appalachia and its place in US history, with a special emphasis on how generations of its inhabitants lived, worked, survived, and depended on natural resources held in common.
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Almost unlistenable
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Half Broke Horses
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Jeannette Walls's memoir The Glass Castle was "nothing short of spectacular" ( Entertainment Weekly). Now, in Half Broke Horses, she brings us the story of her grandmother, told in a first-person voice that is authentic, irresistible, and triumphant.
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A BETTER BOOK THAN "THE GLASS CASTLE"
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What listeners say about Hillbilly Elegy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Cynthia
- 11-20-16
In Mamaw's Contradictions Lay Great Wisdom
I was bewildered when Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, but not completely surprised. I'm a veteran and a good number of my old Army buds vocally supported Mr. Trump - but even then, it wasn't half of of my current and former service member pals. FBI Director James Comey's pre-election machinations with Hillary R. Clinton's emails certainly presaged the results - but not the wide swath of red dividing the country, with only a thin veneer of blue that cracked so quickly.
Other than duty stations in the Army, I've lived my entire life in indigo blue states. As a decades long California transplant, I've got a deep understanding of Mexican culture and traditions. However, I was completely and embarrassingly clueless about a lot of my country, especially a hillbilly culture of 25 million people in the Appalachians.
After the political upset, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, or the New York Times - maybe all three? - talked about J.D. Vance's "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis" (June 28, 2016) as a way to help understand the America that elected Trump. It's no sociological study, but it certainly gives perspective and it's a good way to start.
"Hillbilly Elegy" is a memoir, the story of a young man who had an upbringing so rough he could have ended up drug addled and dead at a young age. Vance struggled through high school and an uncountable number of temporary fathers. An enlistment in the Marines started a turn around that lead to Yale Law School and then prestigious jobs at white shoe firms that never even crossed the mind of street lawyers like me . Vance believes the presence of strong and loving family members, especially his grandparents and sympathetic mentors made the difference. It's hard to argue, but Vance undervalues his shrewd intellect and a presence that is, on Audible at least, commanding.
Vance's description of the hardscrabble Appalachians and the Ohio rust belt he grew up in; the murderously fierce Scots loyalty that shaped him, his family and his world, fueling and altering recent and ancient history; and the crushing poverty of both places were rocket fuel that drove him but immolated so many more on the launch pad. Vance's memoir is unpitying, but not unsparing . I would guess things were very much worse than he described - maybe not for him, but for his neighbors.
Vance himself called the 2016 Presidential election wrong, assuming the common belief that Clinton would win, "Life Outside the Liberal Bubble" New York Times Opinion page, November 9, 2016. "I thought I was above this divide, and I looked down on the coastal elites for living in their bubble. But I was wrong . . . This election has revealed, above all, that Trump and Clinton voters occupy two separate countries."
If Vance, with his personal experience and far superior education got it wrong, I don't feel quite so stupid. Still uneducated, though. So I'll read more, and maybe I'll find the time to start section hiking the Appalachian Trail next year.
Vance did the narration - and, wow. If that New York Times contributor/best selling author/Yale educated lawyer thing doesn't work out for him, he's got a fall back career as an Audible narrator.
The title of the review is a quote from the book.
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- Gotta Tellya
- 09-11-16
Enlightening!
Would you listen to Hillbilly Elegy again? Why?
Yes. I loved the stories that the author shared. Some were colorful and quaint, others were dark, sad, and disturbing. But a life lived, examined, and improved upon--that is irresistible to me.
What other book might you compare Hillbilly Elegy to and why?
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.
Have you listened to any of J. D. Vance’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I doubt if J.D. Vance has recorded other performances. One important thing I must point out: a few reveiwers noted that the author/narrator spoke too quickly. I had the opposite reaction. Finally, a narrator who moved along at a decent pace, and who was not more interested in emoting and acting than he was in getting on with the story! This is one of the few author-narrated audio books that I have really enjoyed. Another reviewer made negative comments re the off-colored language used by some of the people in J.D. Vance's autobiography. Sorry, but that's how those individuals expressed themselves. The author wasn't indulging in gratuitous or excessive cursing. What was he supposed to do--censor genuine, pithy remarks and change them to "Gosh darn" or "Gee whiz"? Time to grow up, readers!
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I felt very sad, reading how tough life has been and continues to be for one seldom noticed group of people, those of Scotch-Irish ancestry who proudly call themselves hillbillies. This isn't a group of people who suffer from lack of outside intervention, which they resent and resist, often rightly so. The tragedy is their assumption that their fates are sealed, that life will always be tough, that there is no future outside poverty and drugs and violent upholding of cultural codes. The author was blessed with some caring relatives and friends, who helped him cope with the effects of his cultural inheritance and his mother's substance addictions. The author remade himself through a stint in the Marines, then graduated from college and law school. Yet the effects of his hillbilly upbringing remain and require ongoing understanding, acceptance and modification. I'd like to meet J.D. Vance. He sounds like a remarkable man. Somehow, by his own transformation, he is uniting the best of both the hillbilly culture and modern mores and behaviors.
Any additional comments?
I worked as a nurse for decades. I took care of hundreds of people who had physical problems resulting from mental and emotional issues, often caused by unfortunate childhood experiences. Those who took responsibility for their own condition and fate did well. Those who wallowed in self pity, and who blamed others--family, school, law enforcement, the government--for their problems, never improved. Self pity and blaming others is a trap. Giving in to those two negatives is like crawling into a cave and rolling a stone across the entrance, so that no light can enter. Like the case of J.D. Vance, the only way to a happy, productive life is to accept and understand one's past, work hard in the present, and make positive plans for the future. And the key to all that is to recognize one's own worth. It's hard to feel worthy of a good life, unless we receive enough affection and encouragement along the way. I hope the hillbillies of this world, and all groups and individuals who lack good parents and adequate food, clothing and education, find what they need in other positive forms, like grandparents, teachers and good friends. There is always hope. Sometimes, we have to work hard to find hope. But it's there.
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- Dr. Amazonia
- 07-23-16
Deja vu for me
I was raised lower middle class. Not with the violence portrayed in the book but with the values and the incentive for a better life. I'm now a successful dentist. I wish that there was a version without the cussing and swearing for my grandkids to listen to. I'm in a very low socioeconomic community and understand the plight of many of my patients. I've shared the book with most of my 'reader" patients. And will continue to. But always with the caveat of the language. I can't share with most of my dental colleagues about my bootstrap early existence because they won't understand. But I can relate to my welfare patients and give back when I can.
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- Wayne
- 08-05-16
A great memoir by a 31 year old
Wikipedia defines elegy as, "In English literature, an elegy is a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead." Although this book is not a poem, it does involve serious reflection and it is a tribute to JD Vance's now dead hillbilly grandmother (mawmaw). It is also much, much more. Hillbilly Elegy is a touching true story of life growing up in the lower middle class communities of the mountains of southeastern Ohio and eastern Kentucky and escaping that area and the often destructive culture of drugs, alcohol, violence, early marriage and parenthood, and divorce. It is also a story of luck, good fortune, and personal strength that allowed a poor student not only escape but graduate from Yale law school.
Vance says that he is 'the luckiest son-of-a-bitch in the world", a title I often claim myself. He deserves it more! I'm 42 years older than him and was born into the equivalent culture of the time in the rural US south. But I was born early enough not to experience the further degradation of the culture that came with drugs, family breakdown, and the availability of government money that stifles the desire to escape by moving people from being in genuine poverty to being lower middle class.
The individual stories of Vance's mom, sister, pawpaw, and others, but especially of his grandmother who raised him are often frightening and just as often heart warming. Vance paints a vivid portrait of a time and a place that is depressing and yet typical of how people there live. As he says, most people in the US look dawn at the people trapped, often by their own choices, in an environment where the jobs are gone but the inducements to try to escape are no longer present.
Vance does an excellent job of narrating his own book. Another narrator could no have reflected the emotion as well as he. This is a must listen audiobook.
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- bjb
- 08-24-16
So many truths
Vance's ability to be truthful to his life story and tell it through his fears is remarkable. As a Black Appalachian who is also a social worker and educator trying to help others recognize the humanity in so classified difficult youth, I appreciate the read. But even more importantly I am hopeful that others will pause as they read to take stock in their surroundings - to offer positive words, random actions of kindness, and moments of encouragement to some child, youth, or first generation college student because to alter one's path takes many people along the way. It is not just natural "smarts" or opportunity as many think, it is all the implicit rules of engagement that we never even think about that makes a difference. And as Vance also illustrates even well into adulthood there is much unspoken assistance needed. Great read! Thanks for sharing so freely of yourself.
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- Kevin Lee Patrick Jr
- 11-19-19
A story about us, but not for us
Mr. Vance writes a moving piece, which brought me to tears on more than one occasion. The great disappointment of the work, however, is that he's written something about us and not for us. Hillbilly Elegy holds up the consequences of three hundred years of Appalachian exploitation, and rather than addressing the causes which yielded these results, he unceremoniously shits on those that suffer them.
If you would like to impress folks in New York or California with some folksy yet tragic stories, then this might be ideal. If you have, what I can assume Mr. Vance would call, the great misfortune of being an Appalachian: you'll find nothing in this book written with you in mind.
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- ForDaStars
- 08-06-16
Incredible insight
Thank you so much for your insights on so many truths. You have helped me understand why my two sons are pushing me away. Even though I didn't have the issue of addiction like your Mom, I did have quite a few different relationships with men after being widowed. Add to that my terrible temper, which I have finally gotten control of. Now I understand how they must have suffered. I only pray that one day they can forgive me and we can build some sort of relationship.
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- Carole T.
- 07-05-16
Making Sense
In a recent NY Times column, conservative intellectual David Brooks recommended this book as offering insight into a mystery of recent political trends in the United States (and, to an extent, in other parts of the Western world). Why do so many angry, disaffected, lower-to-middle class white people vote in a seemingly irrational manner that often appears even to be against their own self-interest?
J.D. Vance is an ivy league-educated young lawyer with a particularly good background for exploring the anger and rage that has led to such upheaval in recent elections. He was born in Eastern Kentucky's hill country and then moved with his family to the industrial rust belt of the midwest.
In claiming this "hillbilly" background, Vance attempts to make sense of (if not excuses for) a culture that has lost its way and is feeling left out of what used to be seen as the American birthright of optimism and high expectations for the future.
Vance's family story is at times hilarious, often appalling, and ultimately heartbreaking. His affection for his fiercely loyal but very flawed mother, grandparents (you will never forget "Mamaw" and "Papaw"!) and extended family is obvious and to be commended. Yet his personal success and years away from that culture give him a clear view of the toll that geographic displacement, economic failure, lack of education, and drugs have taken on an increasingly helpless and hopeless portion of the population.
As a technologically advanced nation, we have to find a way to reach out to and bring along those who are feeling disaffected. Everyone agrees on that. "Hillbilly Elegy" doesn't tell us how to accomplish this task, but it gives us a much-needed glimpse inside the problem.
These are real people with a rich history in this country - people of value and sensibility - and they need help. Trying to understand them is the very least we can do, and J.D. Vance helps us get there.
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- harsh critic
- 08-06-16
Phenomenal. Something for all of us.
Absolutely exquisite summary of the plights of America's poor working class. I found myself recalling my own family stories, identifying in places & thanking God I had no connection to JD's experiences in others. This is a must-read for high school juniors as many many tips about making a life that's livable not just endurable are given without judgement for lack of knowledge. Devoured this book in 2-3 days. There is something here for all of us.
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- Grace O'Malley
- 08-17-16
May be better read in hard copy
This is an excellent book, well-written and well-paced. The author wonderfully balances gripping stories of his own growing up with observations about self-inflicted problems in the "white working class community". A good many of the latter do not in fact work which the author identifies as a major cause of their life problems. Despite his own success he is never arrogant and always gives credit to those who helped him. There is tremendous love in this book! Vance's grandparents, sister, aunts and uncles, and cousins, and then wife are warmly drawn to the point that this listener would like to have met them. This book is a very good choice if you want a terrific story with larger truths to tell.
My one reservation: the author reads with perhaps more authenticity than a professional narrator might have... But why didn't the director insist that he slow down? He rushes through larger words so fast that syllables get left out and the meaning of the sentence sometimes gets jumbled. Even a high school drama or speech teacher tells students to slooow dowwnnn. Some poignant moments and punchlines do not receive the thoughtful pacing or timing they deserved.
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