Review: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Vance has managed to capture the heart and soul of the hillbilly and of the forgotten, hopeless, poor, white working class, without detracting one iota from their humanity. Phenomenal.

I laughed out loud, I shook my head, and I wondered over how vile life can be for many – for those who are left behind. Decades of disregard and disrespect created a kind of cultural corpse in Appalachia but Vance breathes new life into it, demanding that it be better understood. Yes, he succeeds.

If you are someone who has never taken a spin within the rings of Appalachian poverty or who has no idea what Mountain Dew Mouth looks like, I strongly recommend this book. I simply adored the cussing, rifle-slinging Mamaw. I have known women like this – have learned from them - and have even been told that I can sound like one when the situation warrants it.

The most beautiful part of this book is what is missing. Bitterness, resentment, anger, revenge and general discontentment with what had been his lot in life – these are absent. He went to the school of hard knocks. He was given zero opportunity. He was of the people and the culture which gets written off. Yet, miraculously, things worked out well for him. I think he knows how lucky he is.

I actually read this book while reading (at the same time) the book Educated by Tara Westover. Both are memoirs. Both Vance and Westover grew up in abject poverty. Both had whack-a-doodle parenting, early (and repeated) childhood trauma, and highly improbable chances of acquiring a sound education or a future filled with opportunity. But, they both prevailed over their damaging circumstances, with an almost unbelievable rebirth into the world of “The Accomplished”. Yet the mood of these books could not be different. Vance is hope. Westover is not.

Vance alone emerges without malice toward the people in his life - people who certainly harmed him and held him back. I am not fool enough to think that the trauma of Vance’s childhood has left no scars. But I really appreciate that his memoir focuses on the good and that he seeks to explain not convict or condemn. And he does interpret the hillbilly experience - he spends just the right number of pages explaining how these salt-of-the-earth people became the scourge of it (in the eyes of many) and he does this without getting preachy.

If you read this book, you will learn. You will have a better understanding of our country and you might tap into your own inner hillbilly, embracing the profane but precise platitudes of the marvelous Mamaw.




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