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.

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.

American Classic

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

This is a story that rings true and offers great insight.

This parallels life in a small southern town in many respects, with the role of organized religion playing a more significant stabilizing part. Also, there seems to be more opportunity to escape from the snares of the hometown "trap" -- early marriage, settling for a routine job, bad diet, no real prospects, seeing your small town age and decay around you. Those who were trapped in poverty tended to go west rather than north, and seemed to find themselves in a better situation than the hillbillies who moved to what is now the rust belt. I am from a couple of generation earlier than J. D., but the story and the observation struck a chord that I can relate to. From one vet to another, thank you J.D. For your service.

A must read

I lived on the Kentucky border in northeast Tennessee for a couple years and wish I had read this book first. The stories, the people, even their names are scarily accurate. This could have been written about Oneida Tennessee. A must read for everyone to understand our country right now, why Trump got elected, why race is a complicated stigma but poverty and lack of parental stability are far more pressing issues. It raises questions that we all need to ask in order to start dialogues which our country needs to have.

Thank you for opening my eyes

Thank you J.D. for opening my eyes to the Hillbilly world and providing me, a 3rd generation Mexican American, a perspective that I never acknowledged. Our childhood struggles are similar and I found your book to be enlightening and relatable. I loved all of the psychological research you provided in your book on how childhood experience impacts our adult life. Thank you!

Must listen

This book made me laugh and cry. (Sometimes in the same paragraph). A great examination of some very current issues with insight into the current political mess that we find ourselves in. But that is not the core of this story. Provides insight into the hurtful family dynamics that are not exclusive to the hillbilly culture. Having the book read by the author makes it all the more powerful