Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Over the years, I have spent much mental and emotional energy trying to understand the poverty culture. To even talk about a poverty culture invites heated, often unproductive conversation. J.D. Vance has tackled this subject courageously.

Broken families, unstable homes, and a sense of helplessness coupled with a propensity for violence are a lethal combination that no government program can adequately address.

It is easy to write off what Vance says ( and some of the reviews do) because he had smarts, a safety net of extended family and mentors, and a listening heart. But that’s the point. Making good decisions is more powerful than the vote.

A Timeless Blueprint

Vance gives a timeless blueprint for bootstrap success that touched a deep chord in me. It’s exactly how my father, a member of the Greatest Generation, pulled himself out of poverty. The son of a violent, alcoholic father, raised in poverty by a single mother, he took advantage of the hand up he was offered.Military service and the G.I. bill afforded him an education, job, and home ownership. It wasn’t free–he risked his life in WWII for the opportunity–but it’s the reason why I became the first college graduate in my family and landed squarely in the middle class.

A few months ago, I endorsed a book, With Dignity, by a friend, Jill Leach-Klajic. I did so with trepidation. The family she depicted remained loyal to a hillbilly father who was violent and adulterous. When I expressed my dismay that the father did not grow or change, her response was “yes.” It wasn’t until I read Hillbilly Elegy that I understood her point. Regardless of how we would like to see ourselves as Americans, the truth is complicated. Our circle-the-wagons attitudes are both our strength and our weakness.

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