Hillbilly Elegy

A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

De: J. D. Vance

Narrado por: J. D. Vance

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

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.

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.

A must read book describing present US challenges

J.D. Vance does an excellent job of describing the challenges now confronting many Americans and a thoughtful job of identifying the obstacles that often get in the way of those Americans dealing with those challenges in a positive manner. This is the memior of a young man who comes of age with the help of family, friends, the Marines, and true mentors and who beats the odds that were stacked against him.

Compelling

I spent some time deciding whether or not to read this book. Vance writes about growing up in eastern Kentucky. In many ways, it is a sad story of people not adapting to changes in society and industries. This story was more dramatic during the industrial revolution but is constantly ongoing.

Vance tells of his mother’s alcohol and drug addiction and hopelessness. He discusses the big problem of domestic violence. He was very lucky to have had his grandmother to help him. Vance tells of how he got out of the Appalachia area by joining the military and getting an education. He tells of obtaining his law degree from Yale University and moving to the West coast.

The book is well written and Vance does an excellent job in revealing the toxic culture of the Appalachian area. This class culture divide is a big problem for America. I was most interested in his conclusion and suggestion to correct this problem. After reading his analysis I agree with him that the Scot/Irish hillbillies are the only ones that can solve these problems and I sure hope they will.

Vance does a good job narrating his own book.

Elegy vs Eulogy

This mournful poem/story about the life of a Hillbilly boy touched my heart and made me realize that while I grew up in a different location and circumstances, many of my family rituals were the same. His insights into the realities of poverty and honor are profound. The blessings of family who, crazy as they act, do not give up on each other, are recognized as life saving. Governments cannot save us. We save us. Thanks JD for this insightful piece of loving work.

God, I Hope Hillary Has Read This!

Hillbilly Elegy is on of the most erudite and insightful examinations of modern American society ever written. Statistics can't begin to explain cause and effect the way young Mr. Vance has. This book ought to be given to all members of Congress to read, as well as every state legislator, social worker and anyone else involved with policy or implementation of our nation's social "safety net".

Both political parties have conspired through ignorance and apathy, to disfranchise from the American Dream a significant portion of the population through dogmatic social and educational legislation. There are no easy solutions, but the complex causations must be identified first before we can even begin. The generational gap only increases as both parties gridlock over stagnant ideologies while pointing fingers.

Compelling and informative

Vance's story is very well written; it drew me through every page and kept my attention throughout. Trust me: that's no easy feat! In the context of his memoir, it sheds light on the things that hold back the people near where he grew up and helps to explain why poverty in Appalachia is so stubborn. In effect, it has to be fixed from within.
As I read, though, I trained this isn't a book just about hillbillies alone because the principles he describes manifest everywhere. Apparently there are hillbilly effects all over the US, and probably the world. It's an elegy for us all, to varying degrees of concentration.

eye opening!

I laughed, cried and giggled my way through this book, thank you JD! as the granddaughter of an Appalachian mamaw and papaw, I could absolutely relate to your life, with some differences here and there, it would seem we grew up in the same family. Here's to our beloved grandparents, who kept us all in line, as well as the "other" folks in our family who taught us many things, both good and some bad. I wouldn't change much.

Emotionally Truthful

The author captured the honesty and true grit it took for people who lived in families that were undereducated and strived for nothing more, to go to college and attain an entirely new life. Those who moved on were caught between feeling proud of their success while at the same time feeling like they had deserted many of their family and friends.

Not Just In Kentucky

This book gave me a better understanding of my relatives lives, and they are caucasians from a poor area in California. Thank you for the honest reflection- I believe it starts an important dialogue