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 TimesHillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of … 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.
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Interesting reading! Cheered for the main character. Funny, at times, very realistic.
Very interesting read.
Intensely personal and a valuable read to consider class aspects that do not relate to race.
This book would greatly surprise people who were not raised the way the author was. I really identified with the author because I grew up as a poor, rural white child. He makes excellent points about how difficult it is to rise above the past and also about how some people do not know how to go about becoming more successful.
The “story” is a bit slow and for those of us who fall under the categories described in the book, very predictable. Something a little comforting about not being alone.
After all of the hype, I was hoping for a book to help me understand why the people of Appalachia are in such bad condition and vote against their own interests. What I got instead was a self-serving autobiography.
I loved this book. It explains so much in my family history.Why my dad felt the way he did about things. I just really enjoyed it.
This book reminded me of my own journey and family. A must read to understand a very real portion of the American public.
He is onto something here. Had me wondering how my own family struggled to rise above and why some made it and others did not. I wish I had read it at 16.
A great read! I finished it in a couple days, I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommend this book.
People who got left behind by time and circumstances trying to make some kind of sense of what happened and why. I wish it had more dept to it. The characters were interesting but it was hard to understand their motivations and why they got stuck.
I only read the first 3 or 4 chapters. Wasn’t learning much about “hillbillies” per se. Mostly just reading about the author’s violent, dysfunctional family.
Helped see what it is like for those who cross strong class barriers. Inner look at what came before and what led to another life.
Very interesting and informative book
It just wasn’t enough story for me. Not my kind of book.
Good insights into the lives and thinking of a segment of the American population I was not familiar with previously. A large segment.
Gave me great insight into not just the hillbilly culture, but by extension, other groups with stories of their own which impact lives for generations. A great resource for teachers and others who work with children and adults from other cultures.
I loved this book. I appreciate how the author did not offer any easy answers to the despair today in the rust belt, because there are no easy answers. He courageously shared the story of his troubled early life and raised a lot of questions that our country needs to dig deep into in order to begin to answer.
A great book for those that are interested in this “lost” group of Americans. May not agree with all of the authors assertions but it is definitely thought provoking.
I made a BIG mistake purchasing this excuse for a book. LANGUAGE WAS TERRIBLE!