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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Highly recommend this book. One person’s candid inside look at how an upbringing into poverty can form a very limiting view of what’s possible in life.
Very interesting and realistic presentation of the author’s world.
A insightful read.
I expected more from this book, but it was worth reading for a glimpse at a different way of life.
A view of the subculture that informs and challenges stereotypes
I highly recommend this book.
The information seems to paint every “hillbilly “ the same- not true. I hated the course language and will not be inclined to read anymore books by this author. He writes from a microcosm of his life which does not reflect the strength and dignity of most mountain folk.
Informative, but not a fan of the authors politics, which were evident in the prose.
Over rated.
Gives you a much better understanding of a much maligned and misunderstood section of society. Fascinating read.
This is a beautifully written book that puts the spotlight on an America that I, for one, was unaware of. J.D. Vance tells an amazing personal tale that everyone should read.
We moved from Perry County, KY in 1959 because the Buckhorn Dam took our land. Best thing ever happened to me. The characters in this book resemble my heritage, my family. I was lucky. I was young enough that I don’t remember much of Kentucky and being exposed to it after I was older was a shock.
At twelve, I went back to Perry County for the first time. I was raised in Southern Indiana, and had nothing in common with these people. I couldn’t believe the way they lived, but mostly, the way they thought.
Don’t get me wrong, we were raised poor. Everyone knew my family was poor and had a herd of kids, after all, we were from Kentucky. I was amazed by how much Vance’s family resembled mine.
I didn’t get the political slant on this book. I just saw a mirror being held up to my family.
I must say, I was amazed by Mamaw’s language. I spoke to my sister about it,(older). She said lots of women talked like that. Don’t get me wrong, I can foul the air with the best of them, but was raised with the adage “people look down on women that cuss”. My sister says that it was just mom and her standards.
All the kids in our family left home as soon as they were eighteen and out of school. We did all get thru high school, unlike some of my cousins still in Perry County.
I liked this book. Like I said, missed the politics. Maybe if I read it again, I would see the political slant and be offended. But, on first reading I didn’t. Just a book that reminds me of my family dynamics and the struggle and success one person had.
Very human and thought provoking. We don’t always appreciate what we have. A must read for millennial s.
a good insight into a group of people one might not particularly think about the “whys” of
Very self-serving.
A thought-provoking book about America’s white working class. Highly recommend.
Interesting account of growing up in (and ultimately leaving) Appalachia, but, in the final analysis, gives no real reason for the author’s conservative politics.
A great book that elucidates the plight of those in the lowest economic strata of society. This issue is clearly shown to cross racial lines and demonstrates it is financial, more so than ethnic, factors that determine the degrees of discrimination experienced.
I am a avid reader and this is one of my favorite books
This is a good book with a wealth of information. My one drawback is that the reader must be on guard for political overtones that are not always accurate and absolute lean a certain direction. Other than that, the book is a good read.