Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by
J.D. Vance
My rating:
4 of 5 stars
This is a good look at poverty and violence, and the struggle it is to grow up inside them and to then try to make a life outside of them. It's a lot about class, community culture, and the persistent trauma of growing up inside a culture of constant stress and drama. Honestly, this hits very close to home, even in Missouri, and I know many people who grew up in such a way or are still trapped and impacted by similar childhoods.
My brother said this was a boring book, because it's everything he already knows about the impacts of growing up in poverty and despair. In fact, his exact words were, "I thought it was boring and not that good, but we grew up in a poor area, so it wasn't anything groundbreaking."
This had me thinking about why my brother would expect a book about a culture in crisis to be groundbreaking. Does he feel as if there is some kind of reason or solution to poverty and violence that he does not yet know about? And why doesn't he want to see the reality of some of our life experiences reflected back in his literature?
My mother said, "It is suited to those who have always had advantages and money and don't understand those who haven't."
Now, on some level, I understand her comment, because she's suggesting that the value of the book may be in its shock value for all of those who haven't grown up in or surrounded by some level of poverty and hardship. But who in the world are these people? And what world do they live in that I don't? How many
