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

I, like many people, became aware of this book after the author's viral interview on the American Conservative website. (Too lazy to link, but you can google it up.)

Essentially, this book doesn't add much. The main points are captured in the interview - in fact, even more nuanced points are captured - and he seemed more articulate there. This book is, instead, a so-so written memoir about a dude who has just come out of one of those uplifting, glorious “rags to riches”/”get out of the ghetto” stories: he grew up in a poor and broken home, in a community of poor white Appalachian migrants to Ohio, and managed to break free, move on up through Yale Law School, and he now shops at Whole Foods. He's 31? 32? Like, he just got out.

In a way, this is a standard heart-warmer about education setting you free and the glories of upward social mobility (yay). It's especially striking, though, because it made me confront how much class pervades my life - invisibly, but powerfully. As the author's grandma notes, prejudice against poor white people is accepted in a way that no other bigotry is: it's culturally and politically acceptable to mock and deride the poor white community, and Vance argues that a lot of the marginalization and resentment felt by that community (the marginalization and resentment that feeds the Trump monster) is in turn fed by that. (e.g. Obama's unfortunate comment that these are people who cling to guns and their religion.) There's an easy condescension which, I admit, I've also - almost always, almost instinctively - held. And that bigotry (my own bigotry) manifests itself in the awkwardness I feel when, for example, my Lyft driver says he's a former truck driver, or my airplane neighbor is a hunter from Wyoming. Suddenly, I feel a chasm: oh, this person must be... a Republican. And is probably an ignorant bigot, not enlightened like meeeee. Ah, the irony.

So it's nice that Vance is “bridging that gap” and humanizing a community that has long been vilified, and making this enlightened butthead buddha confront her classism. When Vance uses the Marines as a powerful springboard into a better life, I felt inspired (me! about the military!): they give him structure, discipline, a community. They help him buy a car. A car! This touched me so. I was reminded of what was - for me - the most touching moment in Hillary Clinton's DNC acceptance speech: “More dreams die in the parking lots of banks than anywhere else.” Gah. Hits me right in my economist heart. Financial literacy is important! As are social networks: another thing Vance notes, as he navigates (awkwardly) the Yale ecosystem. It's incredible.

What's even better is that Vance is a Reasonable Republican - and so, as a conservative, he's more likely to see individuals (rather than systems/structures) as the problems and solutions to things. In a world where Trump has hijacked the Republican Party, I've been especially hungry - desperate, even! - for bipartisan debate with nice conservative people. Vance's American Conservative interview is, thus, refreshing and challenging and great: it made this lifelong liberal think, and consider more conservative ideas - and that's good!

Bottom line: So-so writing. Uplifting story. Politically super relevant.