Hillbilly Elegy

A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

By: J. D. Vance

Narrated by: J. D. Vance

Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins

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.

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

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.

Good story, questionable politics

It gets weird when Vance blames small town working poor for their own problems. I too come from a town with very little opportunity for upward mobility. I'm from Kansas, but identify with a lot of this story. Later in the book I start to cringe as Vance falls into the same old tired bootstrap criticisms that do little but perpetuate poor people stereotypes. Those stereotypes allow people to look at the poor, shake their heads and say, "look what they've done to themselves" while people who "got out" write memoirs about beating the odds.

Relevant

Not having Appalachian heritage but growing up in Appalachian Ohio this book articulated so many patterns I've seen in my own communities. While the book does not offer solutions for the problems that face these communities, it names them and that is an important first step for progress. The book also gives a face to the working class and humanizes folks who have been "othered" for far too long.

I was prepared to hate this book...

After reading the sanctimonious "Republican Like Me," I expected this book to be another thinly veiled swipe at the ignorance of the classless middle class. I could not have been more mistaken. With some differences, this book could be the story of my life. The story of how my mother's life choices impacted her children. How the stabilizing presence of my Grannie, who never cursed and read the bible to her grandchildren every night, gave me enough support to make a different life for my self. Some of us overcome, some do not. The journey takes hard work and good role models. I am lucky.

Uplifting, Informative, and Astute.

I loved Hillbilly Elegy. The genius of this book was the author’s ability to blend his very personal story with a sociological and psychological look at this hillbilly part of the American culture and how it has developed. So while the book is academic in its analysis, it is also personal and really interesting as J.D. Vance describes his life and how and, most importantly, WHY he was able to rise above it.

I had the same feelings I had in Sonia Sotomayor’s autobiography because both of these people were able to beat the odds and rise above the poverty and chaos into which they were born. It is so gratifying and heartwarming to read stories like that. Sonia Sotomayor was mentioned in the book because she spoke at J.D. Vance’s graduation from Yale law school.

At the end of the book J.D. Vance gives his ideas for how our society can better deal with the problems of poverty and cultural detachment from which this area of the country is suffering. His ideas are not easy fixes and may never happen, but they are really thought provoking and come from a deep inner knowledge of the world about which he writes.

well written, thought provoking, authentic

Wow, this is the best book I've listened to in a long time. J.D. weaves the story of his life together artfully with a captivating story, while interspersing it with thoughtful musings of broad sociological perspectives and understanding. He has a very authentic voice and it is inspiring to see him learn and grow, and accomplish more than he'd ever expected. The tone of his memoir is humble, thoughtful, and very evenly measured. I am a very sociologically minded person, and this story helped me gain a more personal understanding of the issues, attitudes, and ideologies of the working class whites of rural America. The thing I appreciate and respect most about J.D. is how he deeply approaches the subject and challenges of his people from various angles. He does not condemn, and he does not justify. He speaks of his childhood trauma without blaming or complaining, gives credit to his grandparents and acknowledges the vast family support network he had, and takes responsibility for his personal setbacks and for creating the life he achieves for himself. I believe more balanced views such as this would really enhance the political spectrum.

Great story and all too familiar

This is all well-written book, and an all too familiar story. JD Vance put to words aspects of my life I had not yet found words for - feelings, experiences and possibilities still to discover! Socio-economic struggles do play a role in our societies' and families' lives that end up being passed down through generations, couple that with how and where we grow up and one may begin to understand those complicated disparities and how we may 'fix' them. It does begin individually, not by looking to our government or political identity to do so. As for the story the author may have well written about someone in the Pacific Northwest or elsewhere in the country - it's far-reaching and I suspect I may not be the only one his story speaks to. Thank you, Mr. Vance, for an entertaining and thought-provoking read from both a personal and social aspect.

Insightful and Entertaining

It was a very enjoyable read. It's always interesting and fascinating to here a story told from an insider's perspective, especially when it's done in such a raw an honest manner. There's nothing revelatory but that only adds to the charm of the story. It's the everyday experiences, which Mr Vance describes with a clarity and crispness that kept me turning the pages wanting to follow his journey from the hills of Kentucky to his time spent at Yale University, and beyond.

Americana

I purchased this book because it is often discussed, on a lot of lists, and more importantly, because some reviewers had likened it to The Glass Castle (which has been undisplayed from my top 10 since its release).

Unfortunately, this memoir doesn't quite rise to the level of Glass Castle. The first and last hours were a bit statistical and not terribly engaging. The middle section, the memoir portion, was much more like Glass Castle, and much more interesting.

All told, I'm glad I listened to this memoir. The "hillbilly" culture was something I knew little about, and this was quite enlightening.

American Classic

I know this story because I lived it. Great American story, ranks with Grapes of Wrath. Semper Fi JD.