J. D. Vance

A Memoir

Hillbilly Elegy

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. 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 one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his 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.

A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

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Colton Ray

Though this was presented as a mix of memoir and social analysis, it's more just a straight memoir. Vance's analysis of the social ills that plague his region is fairly shallow, and he doesn't truly offer any solutions besides "work harder." Not to get too political, but if anything is going to help these people escape the cycle of alcoholism, abuse, and poverty, it is not going to be conservatism or continuing to propagate the social norms that are causing the problems. In the end, though I'm glad Vance did manage to escape this destructive cycle and succeed, I just didn't find him all that compelling.

Hannah Yoon

Sonia Grgas

Really 4.5. Highly recommended for book club discussions.

rumbledethumps

This is a really great memoir. Vance explores the condition of the white working poor. In his own words, "I may be white, but I do not identify with the WASPs of the Northeast. Instead, I identify with the millions of working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree."

He does this while never proselytizing or blaming any politician; he simply explores and explains. And while I'm not sure it explains the rise of Trump Nation, it does explain a class and a culture that is under-represented in the American conversation. Vance's voice should be a welcome addition to that conversation. Highly recommended.

momo-reads

Meh, not all that insightful and left wondering what the actual point was.

Colleen

3 Stars

Hillbilly Elegy was my bookclub's January selection. It seemed like an obvious choice since the book has generated a lot of discussion and the author is from nearby. The book is an odd mix of personal memoir, family history, and broad generalizations about "hillbilly culture" and their place in the socioeconomic ladder. 

Honestly, I never knew what the term "hillbilly" meant until I moved to Ohio. The only time I had ever heard the word was title of the show Beverly Hillbillies which I had never actually seen, only heard of. So even though I had not moved all that far within the same country, I still felt a noticeable amount of culture shock upon arrival. Admittedly, my personal experiences have all been as an outsider, but my husband's background has a lot in common with the author of this book - though thankfully his childhood was a lot less violent than the one described in Hillbilly Elegy. 

I had extremely mixed feelings about this book. I will completely admit that I had never thought of "hillbilly" as a culture before; I'd only considered it a socioeconomic bracket. And that shift of view did help me look at my experiences in a different light. But it does not make it any easier to deal with. Vance does address some of the more frustrating aspects - such as the overwhelming negativity and pessimism, constant government blaming, prejudice about outsiders, and the shunning of anyone who dares to want something different out of life. Some of the conversations he mentions could have been lifted almost verbatim from the angry rants that I have heard first hand. 



However, Vance talks about things without ever going into the depth I wanted. Part of this was due to the inconsistent focus of the book. This is billed as a memoir, and it mostly is. But the author also goes off on other tangents, sometimes about his family's history, sometimes to talk about economics or regional history. It tried to be too many things at once so it lost effectiveness. Although it clearly still managed to create a stir. He relates personal experiences but also randomly dumps in statistical data and research studies to try to make his experiences and views fit the entire Appalachian region. And sure, some of those things (such as average income) can legitimately be said of the general area. But while a culture may be the sum of its whole, it does not provide the exact same life experiences to every single person within it. And Vance makes a lot of big generalizations.
"America has a problem. Though I will use data, and though I do sometimes rely on academic studies to make a point, my primary aim is to tell a true story about what that problem feels like when you were born with it hanging around your neck." But the focus of the book still felt fractured. What does he truly mean by a "culture in crisis"? There may be times when looking at "hillbilly" as a culture might provide a different point of view, but he kept talking about things from a socioeconomic angle not a cultural one. And I am still unclear about his bottom line message. On the one hand, he seems like the ultimate "You Can Do It!" poster boy for climbing the socioeconomic ladder and escaping the cycle of poverty. But he also loudly proclaims how great it is that hillbillies are so loyal to their culture. And since low income and low education level are common, if you make that part of the "culture" then anyone who exceeds the status quo becomes a traitor. Although to be fair, I have experienced that animosity first hand. But unlike the author, I will not assume that my experiences mean every person in Appalachia would react the same way.

Some of his stories were very poignant but also felt emotionally manipulative at times. I was definitely not as enamored with his grandmother as everyone else seemed to be. She may been feisty, but she also seemed to display instability. Take for example the story of when a store clerk apparently told her son that he could not play with a toy without paying for it, so she and her husband both flew into a violent rage, trashed the store, and threatened to kill the clerk. Yeah, real role models there. Vance laughs this off by saying that this is just another demonstration of hillbilly loyalty (in other words standing up for your own even if it involves randomly committing felonies).

The farther I read, the more I felt that Vance was an unreliable narrator. There were a lot of little inconsistencies that added up to a sense of unease. The biggest example is that for most of the book the author alludes to how he has overcome the odds and a college graduate, marine, and Yale lawyer. But at the last minute he starts to admit to still having lifelong problems stemming from his unstable upbringing. None of that was explored though.

Rather than being introspective, this book felt like it written entirely with the audience in mind. But it also tried to play to both crowds. I don't think you can laud cultural loyalty and encourage a complete change of lifestyle at the same time, though he certainly tried. I wish he would have discussed his split between two world more but he only alluded to it.

The ending was also unclear in purpose and kind of a downer. It definitely reinforced the unreliable narrator aspect. But who wants an unreliable narrator in a memoir? Especially in one being so widely taken as fact

So as I mentioned, I still have extremely mixed feelings about this book. While it did illicit an emotional response and did make me think about some things differently, there was also quite a bit of inconsistency in the writing. And the true purpose of the book was vague. I might recommend it in general if someone wants a different voice, but I would also caution that it is a memoir and is based on the author's views and opinions.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Originality: 4 Stars
Consistency: 3 Stars
Emotional Level: 4 Stars
Attention to Details: 3 Stars


Update 5/29/17
I had the opportunity to hear Vance speak live recently. I definitely enjoyed his live speaking more than his book. Maybe because at this point he has had a year to bring his thoughts together into a more cohesive message. Or maybe it felt more personal hearing the words directly from his mouth. But I got more out of his speech. Based on that, I might recommend people look up his TED talk instead although the book is still worth reading.

Nick Gracilla

JD Vance's memoir dives deep into his childhood experiences growing up in Ohio in a poor, white, declining Appalachia culture, struggling with family violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and emotionally traumatized revolving door relationships. The role of a strong family support -- his grandmother -- as well as his transformative break from learned helplessness are turning points. I left NE Ohio, about 15 years earlier, and have not understood what has happened there and why. This book helps explain the white Appalachian cultural landscape in the wake of economic decline.

Kristen Claiborn

What I found most interesting about this book was that “Hillbilly” is truly a culture and not just a slur. I had no idea. After reading this, I honestly would like to take a bigger look at where that culture came from. While the author gives a bit of a background, it doesn’t really dig into a whole lot, and now I’m curious. I applaud Mr. Vance for the skills he acquired to make it to adulthood and flourish. It seemed like many people that grew up in similar circumstances weren’t as successful. Vance seemed to face many difficult obstacles along the way. My heart broke quite a few times along the way, but in the end he seemed to be doing well.

Deyana

This is one of those books that makes me wish half-stars were a thing on Goodreads, but alas, I must give it 3 rather than 4. In the midst of studying the modern capitalist issues in America through academic texts, this work was refreshing in that it gave a newfound perspective (new to me, at least) in a memoir format.

I think the particular strengths in the book can be attributed to its acknowledgment of familial trauma, and I remember having a "book club" class meeting where we all sat in a circle and some of us spilled a bit about our own lives and hardships (not trauma-bonding but rather drawing comparisons to socio-economic issues that seem distant in the headlines to some of our own lives as privileged, mostly liberal college students). That being said, it was still difficult to sympathize with the narrative at times, and I seem to remember a looming lesson of "work hard,"--a capitalist illusion of choice, a seeming magical remedy out of generational and quite frankly, targeted poverty, and a pipe of the American Dream. Perhaps I lingered a bit too much on this discussion, but I seem to remember it sticking out to me a lot when I read it less than a year ago (though it feels much longer as I write this).

linda

I read this book because friends had billed it as the explanation for Donald Trump’s 2016 election win, an insider look at the problems plaguing rust belt Ohio and all of Appalachia. But this book is so much more.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I started reading JD’s narrative, but after two chapters, I was hooked. JD’s childhood was tumultuous to say the least - he had “a revolving door of father figures,” a mother who struggled with substance abuse, suffered from intergenerational poverty, and never truly experienced a nuclear family. He talks about the screaming matches and physical violence that was characteristic of his hillbilly upbringing. Despite these trying circumstances, JD succeeded, supported and loved by his grandparents. I love Papaw’s advice and will take it to heart: “He taught me that lack of knowledge and lack of intelligence were not the same. The former could be remedied with a little patience and a lot of hard work. And the latter? ‘Well, I guess you’re up shit creek without a paddle.’” Another one of my favorite moments in the book is when JD joins the Marines and gains a newfound confidence: “In the Marines, giving it your all was a way of life...there’s something powerful about realizing that you’ve undersold yourself—that somehow your mind confused lack of effort for inability.”

What I loved the most about JD’s book was his remarkable optimism. I’ve read plenty of books about being an outsider, especially in elite educational institutions. Despite being middle class, this is a feeling I can strongly relate to; JD talks at length about his lack of social and cultural capital and the opportunity gap this creates. While all of these books have resonated with me, JD’s book was by far the most positive. When he went to Yale Law School, JD did not feel ashamed of his upbringing; he felt even prouder of himself because of how far he has come. I was inspired by his immense gratitude - “I began to appreciate how lucky I was: born in the greatest country on earth, every modern convenience at my fingertips, supported by two loving hillbillies, and part of a family that, for all its quirks, loved me unconditionally.” JD also presents a raw, unfiltered version of himself. With plenty of curse words and self-deprecation, JD is imperfect in a way that makes you feel that he is not too far away and that you can aspire to be him (hey JD, I felt bad about not wearing Abercrombie clothes too). 

Back to Trump’s presidency: according to JD, Appalachia’s problems are not economic alone (though it is increasingly difficult for unskilled manual laborers to ascend to the middle class). They are rooted in broken family dynamics, cultural attitudes, and most of all, a crisis of confidence. Years of cyclical poverty, financial and emotional, have engendered a feeling of learned helplessness. For JD, there is no quick fix, though he argues that early intervention and social institutions like the church can help. 

Hillbilly Elegy took me to Middletown and back, and it left me with a sense of confidence - with a little patience and a lot of hard work, I can accomplish anything. And for the Linda four years down the line, look at your yellow highlights on page 380 for why YLS. :)

Whitney Pickle

I could not finish it. 43%. I never quit a book when I've read more than 10%, but honestly, I have too many books that I want to read, I don't want to waste the 3-4 hours it would take me to finish this.

Jason Horne

** spoiler alert **
           JD's story is compelling. Because of his transition from roots in Kentucky and Southern Ohio poverty to his current state of being as a Yale-educated lawyer, he has a unique perspective on the middle-American working class. He's thoughtful about his own experiences and how they were indicative of those around him and he's thoughtful of how his culture has come to exist. The thesis is clear, there is an upward mobility problem that plagues many in our country. What feels absent from the book is a direction to go from that thesis, but maybe that stops it from being political. It starts and stops as a memoir that illustrates a compelling story for JD Vance, but one well could have easily been a tragedy instead (and is, for many in that area).

Dana Kraft

I didn't love this book but it was an easy read and the perspective of the author is interesting since he's had a foot in two totally different worlds. The characters reminded me of some of Ron Rash's fiction or of Justified (my all-time favorite tv show). I understand why people see this as a window into Trump voters, although I don't really care about that so much. 

The two things I'll remember are:
1) His description of the challenges that foster kids face - definition of family vs extended family and their feelings toward family members who often let them down.
2) his recollection from his time in Iraq - "I don't believe in epiphanies. I don't believe in transformative moments, as transformation is harder than a moment. I've seen far too many people awash in a genuine desire to change only to lose their mettle when they realized just how difficult change actually is."

Maggie Gordon

Hillbilly Elegy is another book with over 800 holds on it at my local library. Like The Women in Cabin 10, it was good, but not as good as it's intense popularity led me to believe. As the title states, this is a memoir, but it's also a book attempting to cast a wide sociological net. Vance wants to talk about his personal story, but also use it to talk about the difficulties of poor, white Americans in the Appalachian area. He makes some interesting observations, but the lack of empirical evidence diminishes his point. He references certain academic works (without citation), but it's always hard to tell whether an individual's experiences and perspectives are truly representative of a region. I appreciated his voice and story as it is not entirely dissimilar to my own, but I think he might have been reaching at times. Also, memoirs tend to disguise the political aspects of this type of analysis which is just a tad problematic with this topic.

Heather Anne

I had to read this for school and um...it's certainly smt

Celeste Richardson

Hillbilly Elegy should have been two separate books. While billed as a memoir, this book was also a bit of an academic treatise on the shortcomings of working class hillbilly communities and possible solutions to those shortcomings. While the more academic elements of the book were interesting, there is something about their inclusion that weakened the power of Vance’s conveyance of his life among said hillbillies. I’ve read some powerful memoirs recently and found this one emotionally disconnected in comparison. Even though Vance was revealing the pitiable trials of his early life, these revelations felt almost mechanical and void of deep feelings. I’m sure this was a difficult book to write, and Vance did indeed bare all, but I found myself unable to connect in any meaningful way. I respect this book and its author but sadly, it just wasn’t for me.

jack morris

As someone who’s lived their whole life within driving distance of a major city, I lack a lot of insight into what large parts of America look like. That’s what led me to read “Hillbilly Elegy”, the story of a self-proclaimed “hillbilly” who rises from near high-school dropout status to graduate from Yale Law School. But I was looking for broad cultural insights, and at the end of the book felt like I only learned more about one person. Maybe more stories about his peers growing up would’ve helped. Or maybe interweaving narrative with more historical descriptions of Appalachia and explanations about how it differs from other parts of America. I don’t know. What I do know is that if you want to know about one man’s journey from the bottom to top of the American classist totem pole, it’s worth the read. But if you’re looking for a book to help explain today’s political climate, and want to gain a better understanding of America as a whole, this likely isn’t the book for you.

Emma Friedheim

Maybe more of a personal memoir than the rust belt explainer I expected this to be, but nonetheless a fascinating, honest portrayal of a life that is very foreign to me. Highly recommend!

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER IS NOW A MAJOR-MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY RON HOWARD AND STARRING AMY ADAMS, GLENN CLOSE, AND GABRIEL BASSO "You will not read a more important book about America this year."—The Economist "A riveting book."—The Wall Street Journal "Essential reading."—David Brooks, New York Times 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. 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 one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his 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.

Mirella Hetekivi

Caitlyn Baldwin

The narrative seems innocuous, it really angles itself to hit that "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" sweet spot but I think that Vance paints a harmful picture of Appalachian americans

Barbara Williford

I’m going to preface my review with this: first, I’m having to rate this book to add this review so my one star is being extremely generous. Two, this is the FIRST book EVER that my monthly book club has all felt the same way about a book. Third, I am writing this review as I’m reading the book, I really don’t want to miss anything and it’s taking me a while cause I’m using it to go to sleep at night. Finally, his book is full of contradictions, tangents and political statements that try to generalize ALL the hillbillies in the state of KY. And to wrap all that up....he’s running for political office.

Like most memoirs, this book tells of Vance’s life growing up. He classifies himself as a hillbilly although he grew up in Ohio and only his grandparents were true “hillbillies.” His books is full of contractions. He came from a broken home with a mother who was an addict, could possibly been bipolar, ran through men like water but wait, she was instrumental in his education but living with her caused him so much stress he was flunking out of school and still was able to become a Harvard lawyer (according to his ego, the only one in KY although he grew up in OH). Next...

His grandparents were the true “hillbillies” and were crass, vulgar and would rather fight you or shoot you than look at you. The book is full of violence and crude language. Which according to Vance, ALL hillbilly homes in the entire state of KY is like that with the exception of his sister, his aunt and his dad. Which brings us to the next contradiction. His dad left him and gave him up for adoption and he never had this man in his life and his only father figure was his papaw. He uses this quit often in the book to set the stage for his childhood. However, he does go live with his dad and it was the most stable home life he had. His father showed him was a functional home should be. But, he left it as a high school student to go live life with verbal, mental, and physical abuse where he miraculously made good grades (wasn’t he a flunky too?).

Let’s give an example of the memory, the tangent and the politics...when he was in high school he states they didn’t have cell phones so students had to get expensive calculators. His Mamaw sacrificed and came up with $180 yet.....in the next paragraph he talks about working at the local grocery store and the welfare people coming in with cell phones. Then he goes on a tangent about people on welfare abusing the system, not wanting to work just pushing out babies and getting high. They are taking from the working people like his Mamaw who didn’t work and was living off the dole of her dead husband’s pension. (Not to mention he himself took scholarship money to attend college). Then he generalizes and says ALL welfare people are like that and ALL hillbillies are poor and that leads to drug addiction and them not wanting to work. Say what?!? 

While the black and hillbillies are getting addicted to drugs, refusing to work, living off the government and spitting out babies (Vance’s words), the white middle class is blaming problems on society and government and self sabotaging their lives and are unwilling to work for a better life (except of course the author himself. Guess he’s the only one ever in the US who has succeeded.)

The book may include some memoirs but it is politically driven. “Mamaw always resented hillbilly stereotype” yet he makes statewide generalities based on his little circle of his family growing up. Yes, he stereotypes the entire state. If I lived in KY I would be pissed. He contradicts his “stories” about his own life and talks out of both sides of his mouth. Anyone who wants to vote for him really needs to read this book to see his true character.

*Trigger warning: extremely crude and vulgar language, violence (which seems to be idolized by author), domestic and drug abuse. Racism and strong stereotyping.

Kevin Bertolero

Basically the American, heterosexual version of THE END OF EDDY. For as "different" as Vance thinks his childhood was, his experience sounded pretty conventional to me.

Jeff Brown 

I started reading this because of the highly-promoted, all-star cast movie. I didn't look at the title of the audiobook close enough to see that it is a memoir. I'm not interested in memoirs unless I like the person they are about.

I did not like the author\narrator. For a smart guy that grew up a hillbilly, he's an annoying Yale lawyer that only shows his background when he says "holla" ("They live down in the holla"). 

In the first 20%, I couldn't believe someone thought this could be a movie. At about 30%, he starts talking about theology, which didn't interest me. When I reached 50%, I paused and thought that despite my thoughts of the book, there are a number of interesting characters here (except the author). So I thought I would check the reviews of the movie to see if it is really that good enough to continue reading the book.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating was at 25%. I could give you a brief list of the many crushing comments about Glenn Close, Amy Adams, Ron Howard and the movie itself, but I won't bore you.

The book will bore you enough.

I'm sure those that approach the book differently, though, will have a better experience.

Nadine 

Fascinating look at the other side of America

Hillbilly Elegy A Memoir

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