J.D. Vance is an ivy-league educated lawyer. He has all the trappings of the heralded American dream – rewarded for hard work and diligence, he has a good job, a loving wife, and a nice home. But to get there, he had to first rise above (and in many instances, simply survive) the poverty of his surroundings in Kentucky and his “crazy hillbilly” family. Vance paints a clear portrait of Appalachia that is dire and often hopeless. As a person having a graduate degree that […]
Less than what it seems
Hillbilly Elegy (2016) by J.D. Vance has over 10,000 reviews and four and a half stars on Amazon. It’s on NPR’s Best Books of 2016 list, and was also a book we read in book club. The Economist said “You will not read a more important book this year,” and the New York Times called it “essential reading.” I may be in the minority with this opinion, but I didn’t love it. Although parts of Vance’s life were certainly interesting, it wasn’t what I expected and I found some […]
I’m not joining the fan club
This book has gotten a load of press, particularly since the Trump election. Reviewers and pundits see it as an explanation of the Trump phenomenon — who voted for that rat bastard and why? The disaffected and neglected white working class, that’s who! Of course, it is a mistake to think that it is just the white working class who bear responsibility for Trump. As Ta Nehisi Coates and others have pointed out, Trump’s support is all about being white, with class having little to […]
Hillbillies Among Us
Every year my book club members submit 2-3 suggestions for us to tackle for the upcoming year; we all vote and then the top choices make the cut. I remember seeing J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis described as something we should read to understand how Trump was elected. I was still raw and reeling from the election so I voted against this book. I was sick to death of trying to empathize with people who voted […]