Hillbilly Elegy: An Insightful Memoir Exploring a Struggling Family and Culture

Donna Ruth: I did not know what to expect with this book, but was given a good overview of both the "hillbilly" lifestyle and the world of elites. J D Vance did us a service in highlighting both. Truly an eye-opener - and a good read.

Canada on Jul 16, 2023

Robert Potter: Growing up of Kentucky, but often not living in it (because his parents moved to Indiana before they split), Vance provides a compelling spotlight on hillbilly life, which reads across to disaffected/disenfranchised poor people everywhere. His parents split up, his father disappeared for years, his mother had a succession of boyfriends and a drug habit, there was little work to be had as the auto plant closed down, many of his peers ended up in and out of prison. What saved Vance was (a) he was smart, but, even more, (b) his maternal grandparents provided a base of stability and a work ethic that helped him to believe in himself and to pursue education and, eventually, a successful career: although, even then, years later, he suffers from imposter syndrome, a deep-seated belief that he doesn’t really deserve the good job, the loving wife and kids.

The social background is fascinating – people on the fringes of mainstream society, almost literally, hidden away in the hollers of the Appalachians – with their own codes of honour, interacting enough with The Man to get money, but feeling excluded and not expecting to achieve beyond some personal status at a local level,...

United Kingdom on Jan 18, 2020

Gabriele: When you begin reading this book you find out it's not the easiest book you've come across, you start wondering "Why should I care about this guy's story? What is he teaching me?", but the more you read - some chapters are easier than others - the more you realize you're actually learning and, even if he's not flooding your reading experience with spreadsheets, charts and diagrams, the authors is really getting his point across, and you're learning and understanding the situation he's analyzing in this book.

Italy on Dec 09, 2017

Isaac, cliente Prime: Como dice la portada sirve para tratar de entender los recientes hechos alrededor del mundo, como la elección de Trump y puede extrapolarse para entender el Brexit, pero de manera más profunda puede aplicarse en lo que sucede en muchas zonas de México y Latinoamérica con nuestros problemas de identidad y culturales que nos llevan a gobiernos populistas y culpar a otros de los problemas que nosotros tenemos en nuestras propias comunidades. Así mismo el libro sirve para entender que los problemas que encontramos en muchas zonas pobres donde vivimos también los tienen en países y economías primer-mundistas.

Mexico on Nov 08, 2017

Douglas Teixeira: Este é um dos melhores livros que li nos últimos tempos. O autor conta sua trajetória de vida desde quando era uma criança em família pobre no interior dos Estados Unidos até quando se formou em Direito em Yale, uma das mais renomadas faculdades dos EUA.

Juntamente com sua história de vida, o autor faz uma análise da cultura das pessoas à sua volta e em como essa cultura reforça o comodismo, prejudica a meritocracia, e torna quase impossível que pessoas pobres tenham chances (e condições) de sair da pobreza.

Apesar de o livro aparentemente tratar de uma cultura diferente da nossa, achei que muitas das descrições e análises se aplicam bastante à realidade brasileira.

Brazil on Oct 04, 2017

HT: Subtitle: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
The November 2016 election showed me I'm out of touch with middle America. I've been reading books this winter and spring to help me get a more accurate view of the problems facing the this group. This book, along with Thomas Friedmans "Thank You for Being Late", and Sam Quinones' "Dreamland" are other pieces to the puzzle.
J.D. Vance provides a brutal and personal overview of life in America for the working and non-working poor. As he says in the first few pages, "I want people to understand what happens in the lives of the poor and the psychological impact that spiritual and material poverty has on their children."[p 2] Vance shows us "a culture that increasingly encourages social decay instead of counteracting it."[p 7] Vance was able to escape this cycle of poverty and eventually graduated from Yale law school. It's almost a miracle he made it.
Vance's grandparents moved out of Appalachian Kentucky into Ohio following work. But the work wasn't long lasting; "As millions migrated north to factory jobs, the communities that sprouted up around those factories were vibrant but fragile: When the factories shut their...

United States on May 14, 2017

PRNLM: There is a lot to take in here, even for someone that's seen this life up close in many of its many guises.

While ostensibly about the particular culture of the West Virginia Scots-Irish underclass, anyone that has seen white poverty in America's flyover states will recognize much of what is written about here. It is a life on the very edge of plausibility, without the sense of extra-family community that serves as a stabilizing agent in many first-generation immigrant communities or communities of color. Drugs, crime, jail time, abusive interactions without any knowledge of other forms of interaction, children growing up in a wild mix of stoned mother care, foster care, and care by temporary "boyfriends," and in general, an image of life on the edge of survival where even the heroes are distinctly flawed for lack of knowledge and experience of any other way of living.

This is a story that many of the "upwardly mobile middle class" in the coastal areas, often so quick to judge the lifestyles and politics of "those people" in middle America, has no clue about. I speak from experience as someone that grew up in the heartland but has spent years in often elite circles...

United States on Jul 25, 2016