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From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

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

J.D. Vance

Start date: July 15, 2017

Finish date: August 1, 2017

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Mary Anne

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Reading List

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What Members Thought

Apr 26, 2018 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, mtbr-challenge-2018, read-2018, american-fiction, e-books, memoir-biography, autobiography

This is the author's autobiography where he describes the Appalachian values of his upbringing and their relation to the social problems of his hometown. ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Mar 01, 2017 Renata rated it liked it

What can I say? It's a crazy and scary world out there, and not just for hillbillies. Some of us break out. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

May 23, 2017 Jessica rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017, i-own, audio, non-fiction

3.5-4 stars. I had my ups and downs with this book - I thought the author's narration of the audio was good. The story was fascinating, and yet I felt that some of his analysis was iffy - one minute he's explaining the factors that have lead to the socioeconomic/political realities of the area he grew up in, and the next he's expressing the opinion that hillbillies need to suck it up and better themselves. (my own explanation, not his words). That said, it's an interesting look at a complicated ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 20, 2018 Laurel Bradshaw rated it really liked it

Shelves: color-rating-red, audiobook, daytimers-book-club, appalachia, education, social-conditions, poverty, economy, perspectives-book-club

This book is an autobiography by a young man from a very dysfunctional working-class family in Ohio. He survived a family culture of violence, broken relationships, and addiction due to the steady influence of his "hillbilly" grandparents who instilled the importance of education, and to a stint in the Marines which taught him self-respect and self-discipline. It is a book which is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. I gave it 4-stars for being entertaining and inspiring, reflective and insight This book is an autobiography by a young man from a very dysfunctional working-class family in Ohio. He survived a family culture of violence, broken relationships, and addiction due to the steady influence of his "hillbilly" grandparents who instilled the importance of education, and to a stint in the Marines which taught him self-respect and self-discipline. It is a book which is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. I gave it 4-stars for being entertaining and inspiring, reflective and insightful, but I would want to read more before assigning his experience to a whole cultural region. He is a generation removed from Appalachia, and surely not everyone there comes from dysfunctional families. So if you are looking to understand the results of the 2016 election, his political and economic analysis is superficial at best. The issues that he faced and overcame are not unique to Appalachia.

Book description: Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck. The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history. ...more

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Feb 06, 2017 Jeanne rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017-reads

Part memoir, part sociological study. My own time in Kentucky predates Vance's by over 40 years. That means I don't relate to his prescription drug infested world or his foul mouthed "Mamaw." What I can relate to is fierce family loyalty and the necessity to leave an economically devastated area in order to thrive or even survive. The difference in our stories is that in the early 1950's there were towns and cities to escape to that promised decent paying blue collar jobs. And there was hope. ...more

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Oct 10, 2016 Debra rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, biography-memoir, ohio

The story of my tribe! Many differences from my family, but more similarities than I'd expected to find. ...more

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Jul 07, 2017 Rita rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Feb 16, 2018 Linda rated it really liked it

Oct 31, 2016 Elizabeth marked it as to-read · review of another edition

May 14, 2018 Lisa Thomas rated it really liked it

Jan 26, 2017 Lauren rated it really liked it · review of another edition

May 25, 2018 Monica rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biography-memoir

Feb 16, 2017 Courtney marked it as to-read

Apr 16, 2017 Mary Anne rated it really liked it

Sep 06, 2017 Rhingst rated it liked it

Shelves: audio-books, read-in-2017

Jul 30, 2017 Michelle rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, constant-reader

Apr 02, 2017 Thomas Verstynen rated it it was amazing

Apr 04, 2017 Carrie marked it as to-read

May 31, 2017 Wendy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Apr 29, 2018 Heather rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017-read

May 10, 2017 Beth rated it liked it

May 11, 2017 Teresa Morton rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Jun 18, 2017 LadyDawn added it · review of another edition

Jul 12, 2017 Cynthia rated it it was amazing

Oct 14, 2017 Suzanne rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

Nov 01, 2017 Linda added it

Shelves: hardback, nonfiction, signed, own, memoir, economics, z16

Nov 02, 2017 Gaijinmama marked it as to-read

Dec 16, 2017 Leslie marked it as to-read

Jul 18, 2020 Mark rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Dec 31, 2020 Jeanne Dimon rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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