On Labor Day it seems fitting to write a review of an important
new book, Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, which explores the state of
working class Americans through the experiences of Vance’s family, friends and
neighbors. An elegy is a piece of
writing expressing sadness and J.D. Vance, who grew up with an “address” in Middletown, Ohio and
a “home” in rural Appalachia near Jackson, Kentucky, clearly identifies with
and mourns the passing of hillbilly culture shared amongst the Scots-Irish
working class like his grandparents, Mamaw and Papaw. He says, “Our elegy is a
sociological one, yes, but it is also about psychology and community and
culture and faith.” Vance’s
memoir, over which readers will both cry and laugh, is one of the best
non-fiction books I have read so far this year. David Brooks of The New York Times calls Hillbilly
Elegy “essential reading for this moment in history.”
Vance’s life was filled with disruption – he has had three
legal names and his drug addicted mother was married five or six times, resulting
in frequent moves (roughly once per year).
The constant for him was the relatively close presence of his grandparents,
whose pride, loyalty and hard-working ethic ultimately drove him to excel at
Ohio State and Yale Law School. Vance sees himself as a “cultural emigrant” and
his very readable best-seller provides key insights into a lifestyle that does not
often touch other Americans. Yet, his writing is also very relate-able,
especially when he speaks of resilient children, “kids who prosper despite an unstable
home because they have the social support of a loving adult.” Or when he
describes the community’s “deep skepticism of the very institutions of our society…. becoming
more and more mainstream.”
The statistics are staggering; Vance notes,“Nearly a third of the town lives in poverty, a
figure that includes about half of Jackson’s children.”And, later he refers to a national study which found, “among those with a college degree or more,
fewer than half had experienced an ACE [Adverse Childhood Experience or traumatic
childhood event]. Among the working class, well over half had at least one ACE,
while about 40 % had multiple ACEs.”
Vance writes at length about identity and I hope that our teachers and students read his book and then probe relevant quotes like:
- “I knew even as a child that there were two separate sets of mores and social pressures. My grandparents embodied one type: old-fashioned, quietly faithful, self-reliant, hardworking. My mother and, increasingly, the entire neighborhood embodied another: consumerist, isolated, angry, distrustful.”
- “One way our upper class can promote upward mobility, then, is not only by pushing wise public policies, but by opening their hearts and minds to the newcomers who don’t quite belong.”
Added October 23, 2016: Review of Homestretch, a video documentary about homeless teens in Chicago.
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