Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

Title: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
Author: J.D. Vance
Narrator: J.D. Vance
First Published: June 28, 2016
Publisher: HarperAudio
Pages: 272
Genre: Memoir, Non-Fiction
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Rating:


Synopsis:

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 forty 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, aunt, uncle, 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.

Buy the Book: Amazon

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Review

Hillbilly Elegy is a memoir about one man’s experiences growing up in the rust belt of the United States. I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by Vance himself, which made the listening experience enjoyable since it felt like a candid conversation. Appalachia and the poor white working class are one of those subgroups of the United States that is often misunderstood and overlooked, but this specific population is one of the reasons that Donald Trump scored a win during the 2016 presidential election.

I became interested in this memoir because my dad’s side of the family also comes from one of those small Ohio factory cities, I used to visit each year growing up and it was a big part of my childhood. Vance’s family reminded me much of my own and I could relate in some ways. Vance delves into hillbilly culture and the interpersonal struggles of his immediate family, rife with violence and abuse. He goes into detail about some of his family, particularly his capricious and troubled mother and his grandparents and sister that helped to give him some stability.

Vance’s family migrated from Kentucky to Ohio to find work and suffered after the eventual decline of American manufacturing, the descent into drug addiction, and with it the death of the American dream. Vance makes some observations about the poverty that he had witnessed around him, but it’s all a bit surface-level. He comments on the perceived laziness of the poor whites around him and suggests that they aren’t lazy, but instead suffer from learned helplessness. He also notes his observations about the similar plights between poor whites and poor blacks, but he doesn’t dive too deeply into the systemic issues that create these problems and I find that it was a missed opportunity.

His story goes from childhood up through adulthood, joining the military and later pursuing law school. He takes a lot of pride in being a “hillbilly” and talks extensively about how the violent and unfaithful men in his family were his heroes, which I think is a symptom of the toxic culture that he grew up in. I appreciated that he acknowledges that the instability and abuse he suffered has had a negative effect on his life which has impacted his relationships later.

Vance makes sweeping generalizations about hillbilly culture in Appalachia which is a mistake. However, Vance’s story of a single family of hill people and the problems that they faced is insightful of the kinds of troubles that many families in America have to deal with. This memoir paints a portrait of a family that is not all that unusual and provides some insight into how they function. There is no doubt that more attention and support are needed for these communities, and speaking out is the first step.

Now regarding present politics, I really don’t see eye to eye with Vance on many of his stances, and I am disappointed that he flipped on his opinion of Trump. Vance is a proud conservative thinker, and at the time that he had written this book he wasn’t as unhinged as many of his contemporaries, though this regrettably changed over time. Although he gives off the impression of being a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” type, he does note the responsibility that the government has in providing for its people but does not place the blame solely on the government, and encourages conservatives to do better. Such a shame that he has backpedaled.

Even so, this was a good memoir, Vance has gone through so much and achieved the American dream: he made it out of poverty, got an education, landed a stable career, and married a partner that makes him a better person.

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