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Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis is a memory of JD Vance about the values ​​of the Appalachians of his Kentucky family and his relationship with the social problems of his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, where his parent's Mother moved when they were young.

Book Summary
Vance describes his education and family background in a family in a small town in Ohio. Write about a family history of poverty and poorly paid physical jobs that have since disappeared or worsened in their guarantees, and compare this life with your perspective after leaving that area and life. Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio, although his ancestors were from Breathitt County, Kentucky. His Appalachian values ​​include traits such as loyalty and love for the country despite social problems, such as violence and verbal abuse. He recounts the alcoholism and abuse of his grandparents, and the unstable history of drug addictions and failed relationships of his mother. Vance's grandparents finally reconciled and became their de facto guardians. His hard but loving grandmother pushed him, so Vance was able to leave Middletown and climb the social ladders to attend Ohio State University and Yale Law School.

Along with his personal history, Vance raises questions such as the responsibility of his family and people for his own misfortune. Vance blames hillbilly culture and its supposed stimulus of social rot. Comparatively, he feels that economic insecurity plays a much smaller role. To give credit to his argument, Vance relies regularly on personal experience. As a cashier at a grocery store, I saw social assistance beneficiaries talking on the cell phone, although the Vance who worked could not afford one. His resentment towards those who seemed to benefit from bad behavior while fighting, especially combined with his values ​​of personal responsibility and hard love, is presented as a microcosm of the reason for Appalachia's general political change from a strong Democratic party to strong Republican affiliations. Similarly, he tells stories aimed at showing a lack of work ethic, including the story of a man who quit after expressing his dislike for working hours and published on social networks about the "Obama economy", as well as a Co-worker, with a pregnant girlfriend, who would skip work.

Book Club Questions

Book Review
From a former Marine graduate and Yale Law School, an inquisitive look at the struggles of the white working class in the United States through the author's own story of growing up in a poor city in Rust Belt

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis: that of poor white Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been happening slowly for more than forty years, has been reported with increasing frequency and alarm but never before has it been written from the inside so sharply. In Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance tells the true story of how a social, regional and class decline feels when you were born with him hanging around your neck.

The history of the Vance family began with hope in the postwar United States. J.D.'s grandparents were "very poor and in love" and moved north of the Appalachian region from Kentucky to Ohio in hopes of escaping the terrible poverty that surrounded them. They created a middle-class family and, finally, one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving upward generational mobility. But as the Hillbilly Elegy family saga passes, we learn that grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters and, above all, JD's mother struggled deeply with the demands of their new middle-class life, they never completely escaped of the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of his part of America. With penetrating honesty, Vance shows how he still carries with him the demons of his chaotic family history.

A deeply moving memory, 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 worrying meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.

About The Author
J.D. Vance grew up in the city of Rust Belt of Middletown, Ohio, and the Appalachian city of Jackson, Kentucky. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school and served in Iraq. Graduated from Ohio State University and Yale Law School, he has contributed to the National Review and the New York Times and works as an investor in a major venture capital firm. Vance lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his family.

Author mail for J.D. Vance can be sent to the below:
P.O. Box 1040
West Chester, OH 45071