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    Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
    Unavailable
    Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
    Unavailable
    Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
    Audiobook6 hours

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

    Written by J. D. Vance

    Narrated by J. D. Vance

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Coming November 2020 as a major motion picture from Netflix starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close

    ‘The political book of the year’ Sunday Times

    ‘A frank, unsentimental, harrowing memoir … A superb book’ New York Post

    ‘I bought this to try to better understand Trump’s appeal … but the memoir is so much more than that. A gripping, unputdownable page-turner’ India Knight, Evening Standard

    J. D. Vance grew up in the hills of Kentucky. His family and friends were the people most of the world calls rednecks, hillbillies or white trash.

    In this deeply moving memoir, Vance tells the story of his family’s demons and of America ’ s problem with generational neglect. How his mother struggled against, but never fully escaped, the legacies of abuse, alcoholism, poverty and trauma. How his grandparents, ‘dirt poor and in love’, gave everything for their children to chase the American dream. How Vance beat the odds to graduate from Yale Law School. And how America came to abandon and then condescend to its white working classes, until they reached breaking point.

    Artwork used with permission from Netflix, Inc.

    Editor's Note

    Deep scars…

    Even as the Vance family manages to achieve some semblance of “The American Dream,” J.D. Vance shows how deeply the scars of poverty — and the familial and societal ills that it engendered — have compromised the health and happiness of each generation. A must-read for those interested in the ramifications of American social, economic, and political policy. The movie version stars Glenn Close and Amy Adams.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateSep 22, 2016
    ISBN9780008220570
    Unavailable
    Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
    Author

    J. D. Vance

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

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    Reviews for Hillbilly Elegy

    4/5

    2,160 ratings195 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Thought it was mediocre at the time, but seeing what he's become I'm sorry I ever read it in the first place.
    • 3/5
      I heard much in the media about how this book explains the Trump voter. I wouldn't say it's the be all, end all explanation but it does give an insider look at Appalachian culture and the reality of low-income Americans. As the author points out, government policies can help low income families to a certain degree, but politics is not set up to acknowledge their cultural barriers to attaining a better life.
    • 3/5
      ...meh? I'm in that kind of purgatory where half of me thinks, Yes, his childhood was terrible and that is absolutely not J.D. Vance's fault, but the other half of me thinks, but he still somehow wrote a book that frequently came off to me as self-righteous and self-congratulatory. Only in the very last chapter does he admit that hillbilly culture needs to help itself, that it's not the government's fault or the fault of public policy that they consistently place among the poorest and least-educated American group of people. I felt the majority of the book was spent not overtly and blatantly blaming everyone else but very subtly hinting that it's not a hillbilly's fault that they're doomed from the start, it's just the way it is and it's the only thing they know. He very gently blamed his people for their shortcomings but then was very quick to defend them. Very, very quick. I just wanted to scream, "PICK ONE!" According to Vance, hillbillies hate Barack and Michelle Obama because they are well-educated and had to overcome a different adversity (*cough racism cough*) to hillbilly adversity and grew up in a metropolis and that's apparently easier than a white hillbilly's Appalachian adversity... bullshit. Black inner-city children have just as many, if not more adversity to push through as white Rust-Belt hillbilly children. You're not going to convince me that you had it worse but that they came out better than you and that's why you resent a successful black man and woman. Do hillbillies resent successful white men and women who are doctors and lawyers and bankers for rising up making themselves successful? What a gigantic cop-out."We hate Michelle Obama's healthy eating programs for children not because we disagree with her ideas but because we know she's right." Suuuuuuuuuuuuuure. These black people worked harder and did more to advance themselves than you did, you resent it because even white hillbillies have unjustified white privilege and that's the long and short of it. Vance conveniently skirted around the racism issue of middle-American white people. I found the story in itself to be fascinating; the habits and rituals and customs of a group of people that I'm not at all familiar with. That's what kept me reading, not J.D. Vance's personal story, truly. You can only say that you're not an asshole so many times before somehow it just doesn't ring true. The well-written history and overall interesting subject matter is what helped me give this a solid three stars.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book...it was thoughtful, supported with some research, and resonated with me and I'm sure many readers.
    • 5/5
      An honest and poignant story of growing up in Appalachia. The conclusion is what I've seen as a teacher: each child needs SOMEBODY to guide and direct them, if not a parent, a grandparent, a sister, etc. 272 pages
    • 3/5
      A heart wrenching view into what plagues Americas heartland.
    • 5/5
      Very readable and an excellent opener to a difficult conversation about disparities in our country. Also, a refreshingly approachable writing from a conservative stance--no name-calling here!
    • 2/5
      As far as a memoir goes it is well written, if you remember that what he’s saying he’s explaining it from his point of view I get it. But it is vastly from a white mans perspective trying to hide the racism within his community. Take chapter 12 when he talks about Obama and how his town couldn’t trust him because he sounded educated and was dressed well. Let’s be honest here. That wasn’t the reason why it was so easy for a WASPy community to fabricate and believe the lies that circulated around Obama presidency. It was racism plain and simple. The fact that the standard for any person of color to be taken seriously in any setting is to speak well and dress accordingly was placed there by a WASPy nation. So you can’t tell me that this is the very reason why you can’t trust BIPOC, because our lowest bar always starts higher than your average Anglo Saxon looking person as defined by you, the WASP.
    • 5/5
      A voice from a large but mostly silent community and an extremely important perspective. Anyone who grew up below the poverty line, especially as a part of the white working class, and has been lucky enough to be upwardly mobile will recognize aspects of herself, her family, or her childhood friends not only in J.D.’s story, but in his persistent fears, discomforts, and anxieties.
    • 5/5
      Thoroughly enjoyed listening about JD Vance life story. The love & struggles of family, hardships & perseverance through th help of friends along the way. Awesome that it was read by JD himself.
    • 5/5
      An honest and poignant story of growing up in Appalachia. The conclusion is what I've seen as a teacher: each child needs SOMEBODY to guide and direct them, if not a parent, a grandparent, a sister, etc. 272 pages
    • 4/5
      Insighta to lives so distant to me and so misunderstood
    • 5/5
      Great story that most people will feel a kinship with. Narrator is easy to listen to
    • 4/5
      I will be the first person to admit that I am not a big reader of non-fiction, unless it is history. I’m a big fan of history. Memoirs are probably my second least favorite thing to read but I’d heard many a good thing about Hillbilly Elegy and given the current political climate I thought it might be illuminating. I will note going in to this review that while I am not a child of Appalachia my background has many similarities to the author’s. My childhood was challenging but not near as horrifying as Mr. Vance’s. His mother and I are of an age. I am (at least on one side) of the Scotch-Irish descent he describes. Neither of my parents went to college – my father barely got through high school. I grew up in a big city though, at least until I was 12, then we moved to a very rural area so I made the opposite life change that he did. In a lot of ways this made the book somewhat personal. In other ways I was far removed from the story.I will note that the beginning of the story, I would say the first 4 or 5 chapters were more compelling than the balance of the book. That part focused more on Mr. Vance’s early life and presented the hillbilly part of the memoir. I will admit that this part of the book left me, if anything, angry. Angry at the attitudes he portrayed and wondering at what caused them to grow. Because again, I had grown up with some similar issues and yet I had grown out of it with hard work and a bit of education. Laziness was never part of my life – until retirement when it’s allowed.So where did this laziness come from? This is the big question and apparently there are no answers. Some people can get out of bad circumstances but it seems that it’s epidemic in this area and that is sad. And it makes me angry.The rest of the book, being a memoir carries the reader through Mr. Vance’s time as a Marine and acceptance to Yale Law School. This section of the book was not as interesting for me. It seemed that the author just went to law school because he didn’t want to have anything to do with blood. As if the only options available to him were doctor or lawyer. Once there he was by his own description a fish out of water but he was fortunate to have a great mentor in one professor. He also met the woman who would become his wife.Overall I did enjoy the book. It engendered a lot of strong emotions and lots of great discussion with my husband as he had read the book before me. His childhood was far more stable than mine so he didn’t read into some things as I did, although I will note that he is also Scotch Irish. Hmmmm.It is, I feel a book worth reading and may call for a second go through. There is a lot that needs to be done in this area of our country but it is going to take forward thinking. Looking back is not going to get anything done.
    • 2/5
      Dropped after Chapter 10. The insight into a cultural group is marred by the fact that JD himself doesn't really have much true insight into the people around him. He has a thesis about human nature in general that he is interested in proposing based on his life experience, but he doesn't reach any great or interesting conclusions, merely that poor white people need to buckle up and try harder. Despite his great revelation that the people around him have learned helplessness due to repeated defeats despite their best efforts, he rarely addresses the great socio-political reasons why that learned helplessness has occurred. Such massive world-changing events as September 11th, Bill Clinton, and the New Deal are barely mentioned in passing, The purpose of a memoir is, of course, to be about the story of the author's life, but this book is also clearly trying to make grand conclusions about American society and that is where it fails completely. Perhaps a certain amount of self-absorbtion is required to write a memoir in the first place, but discussions of the importance of family repeat despite the fact that the author rarely presents the perspectives of his family members and never on himself. The author comes across as an arrogant, lucky guy who rarely thinks of people outside of himself and thinks that he has figured out the world. I'm sure I can find other books to read about the culture and history of white Appalachians that would be more interesting and insightful and that don't have such a boring narrator.
    • 5/5
      An honest and heartbreaking look at a part of American culture. I don't really understand why there are so many negative reviews regarding this book as I felt that it told the truth about many of the struggles of the some of the poorest whites in America today. I think J.D. Vance is a brave man for writing about his deeply disturbing past. I reflected upon many of the people whom I have known living in the rust belt and I actually thought that this book explained quite a bit.
    • 3/5
      J.D. Vance describes his life growing up in the rust belt and explains the hillbilly lifestyle and their values. I have heard it called racist and supports the alt-right and I have heard people say its a political guide that provides insight into the rust belt. It is insightful to his life and gives a little bit background information about the region, but nowhere is it a complete look. This book has been made out to be more than it is imo, and I also think it tried to fill this image to an extent and fails because this is not a scholarly study into the region, it is one man's experience, is it a common experience yes, but it lacks scientific data to back it up, some stats were provided here and there, but a lot of it is Vance's observations, which are interesting, but it needs to be more. It is definitely not racist, he doesn't put his people's struggles above others and of course he's not going to go into great detail about black issues because he does not know them, he does mention similarities and questions why these two groups aren't on the same side more often. As a memoir it was interesting, as a political explanation to that regions voting habits, it does not exist. This book would of been better if it didn't try to be about this regions politics.
    • 3/5
      A very interesting and compelling story, but his analysis seems somewhat amateurish and simplistic. Many of his conclusions can easily be applied far beyond the hillbilly culture. It's a very negative story beyond his personal success.
    • 5/5
      What an amazing story for a guy who beat the odds. Great book!
    • 4/5
      Hillbilly Elegy; a Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. J. D. Vance. 2016. I have been vaguely aware of this book for years, but had never thought about reading it as I thought I knew about the Alabama version of these people that were shown so beautifully in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. I got the program for the CL (Communion and Liberation) vacation which suggested that I watch the movie. I couldn’t since I am not a subscriber to Netflix so I downloaded the book and read it. As Vance described in detail the life of his grandparents and his dysfunctional family, I realized that so much of what he described was familiar to me as I grew up with some of the same cultural traits such as fear of change but a determination for children to “do better” than their parents, family quarrels alongside family sympathy for these people and I admire the way Vance was able to escape the worst part of his life but still able to realize that despite the misery and fear he lived in as a child his mother and grandparents loved him and that love was what gave him the strength to leave and change his life. I was surprised at the language Mamaw (we called daddy’s mother this) used. I never heard a man let alone a woman cuss like these people did! Vance’s suggestions for solutions seem good: Limited government assistance but not enough to make people welfare dependant and deprive them of the ability or desire to help themselves. How they can maintain the good of their culture and change the worst parts is a dilemma that has no answer I fear, I have yet to see the movie, but I can fully imagine Glenn Close as Mamaw
    • 4/5
      With family roots in Eastern Kentucky, J.D. Vance grew up in what one might call a disintegrating community in southeastern Ohio. His story depicts his family and community's roots, touted as white working class, but which has declined in social stature over the years. With the odds against him, he has managed to rise up out of the poverty and underprivileged society in which he grew up, though he recognizes that it's not only about rising up and over, but that change needs to occur at several levels.I'm late in reviewing this, as it's been a couple weeks since I finished reading, so things aren't quite as fresh in my memory. My review may offend some -- I'm not sure. Though I didn't grow up or live in Kentucky or Ohio, I did grow up and currently live in a neighboring Midwestern state. The sad fact is that I see many of the same things Vance describes in his book here, locally, and frankly, it makes me very depressed. But it also makes me very mad and sometimes intolerant. I, too, have seen a decline in my own community, and the number of uneducated, poor, and unmotivated individuals and families makes me shake my head and roll my eyes in frustration. Part of me wants to get the heck out of here, but the other part feels tied to the family and community that I grew up in. I could probably go on (or off) on this subject much more at length, but I won't. Though some have criticized Vance's book for stating an accurate picture of this part of the country but not effectively suggesting a good way to remedy the situation, I don't think it's as simple as that. I don't know what the answers are -- I wish someone could figure it out and stop the decline. Many would point to politics being the root cause. I do think that has some merit to some degree, but it's not the sole cause exclusively. A lot of things need to be done in order to "fix" this problem, and politics only complicates it. It's sad, really. If nothing else, this is a good book to instigate some serious discussions.
    • 4/5
      This is a great read and really does a lot to explain our political climate today. One of the strongest points I take away from this is how quickly those who want to be held accountable for their actions and their success are typically the first to blame the government for their failures.

      This is a book everyone who is open to understanding where we are today should read.
    • 4/5
      I started this about a year ago and put it down. I had a hard time getting into this book, maybe because it is more of a memoir, maybe because I could only relate through my “teacher” eyes. I started over yesterday, as I will be off from work for a month during the Corona Pandemic. Having lots of time, I plugged away, realizing the importance of the book. JD places blame squarely and largely on home environments and the mentality of those in and around it. He does not blame schools, which is different from my teacher perspective. Most would lay blame fully and wrongfully there. But, Vance was raised, fortunately, by people who at the very least believed in him and what he could make of himself. It is unfortunate that the people who really need to hear this message will, as he says, so blithely disagree with it - if they read it at all. However, as an educator, I believe schools do not do enough to let children in poverty know how many ways they can get assistance to attend college from elementary school and beyond. Also, more vocational education options would help as well. Kudos to JD Vance for breaking the cycle so many can't, don't believe they can, or choose to give up.
    • 4/5
      I waited a long time to finally read this. Glad I did but still not quite sure what can be done to help.
    • 3/5
      Vance's memoir, for the sake of constructing an upward trajectory in class and education, ultimately establishes the rural cultures and places he mentions as primitive and somewhat doomed. One of many stories that needs to be told for greater understanding of the connection between all human choices.
    • 2/5
      Yes, in some ways this is a powerful statement about the working poor in America, but it is also self-serving. The author escaped and went to Yale and, due to his connections there, found fame and wealth. Of course, he had to work hard and he did, but although his insight into what’s wrong is telling, his solutions are typically conservative. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Grit it out. Save money. No mention that the government could help by offering opportunities or changing one element in a nasty cycle of drugs and poverty and ignorance and family disjunction. Very Ayn Randish. I thought he might turn out to have a great vision about how we can work together to solve our problems. Nope. Even though he mentions and admires the results of other countries( those with social welfare safety systems in place), he doesn’t seem to believe it would work here. I know this not from his book, but from being interested and reading what he is about these days. Really disappointing.
    • 3/5
      An interesting, and often times heart wrenching, look into a segment of society oft overlooked. I'd recommend this book to anyone who doesn't personally know someone who could have been featured or mentioned in this book. While I think the author is at times a little on the nose with his political leanings, the opening chapters really give you a good sense of what his life was like. I can understand why people would mention it in the same sentence at Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World in Me, as they are both stories of people's often fraught lives, but I don't totally feel comfortable conflating these two. A good read nonetheless and one that reminds me of the broader society we live in.
    • 3/5
      It works well enough as a memoir, and I won't argue with his depiction of his own life. Vance does have some good things to say about culture shock at Yale and the results of constant trauma, but I don't think Vance has the chops to make generalizations about cultures--especially since his own childhood experiences were of a specific branch of his culture, those who followed the jobs North. He tries too hard to argue too much from his own very specific life. It gets even looser when he tries to argue politics. There's something here, but it's not the revolutionary book some pundits have cast it as.
    • 5/5
      A memoir of a young man who grew up in the Rust Belt of Ohio, with roots going into Kentucky and Appalachia. A story of a child who witness a lot of bad yet manages to make something of his life. asking the question "What if?" about how he manages his life now.
    • 5/5
      This is a really great memoir. Vance explores the condition of the white working poor. In his own words, "I may be white, but I do not identify with the WASPs of the Northeast. Instead, I identify with the millions of working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree."

      He does this while never proselytizing or blaming any politician; he simply explores and explains. And while I'm not sure it explains the rise of Trump Nation, it does explain a class and a culture that is under-represented in the American conversation. Vance's voice should be a welcome addition to that conversation. Highly recommended.