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

Why this book is getting so much hype, I can't say. Maybe it's because some Americans want an explanation for changes in the Midwestern political landscape or what might be driving the opioid epidemic and think J.D. Vance's memoir provides answers.

Instead, this book is the author's argument against social welfare. The author is ultimately financially successful despite a family is riddled with (what looks like) mental illness, violence, and addiction, amongst other issues (all of these things equated with being a hillbilly). Vance chalks his upward trajectory up to his own initiative and idolizing the apparent support of grandparents who are either alcoholic or extremely violent (lighting another person on fire isn't the most exemplary behavior). Granted, his grandparents embarked on being parents at the extremely young ages of 13 and 17 and came from a history of the same. Were his grandparents better than his mother? Sure, for him, but clearly not for his mother, aunt, and uncle. Is that saying a lot? No. And is all of that hillbilly? No.

It was interesting to hear about the other post-WW2 migration: that of whites of lower economic status moving into the Rust Belt, then teeming with post-war upward mobility. I'd rather have read more about that.