OSU's Relax and Read Collection: Book Reviews

Hillbilly Elegy By J. D. Vance

Hillbilly Elegy J.D. Vance’s memoir and social commentary of the white working class from his youth are at once startling and very necessary. In most of society it seems that the realities of poverty and what it does to the minds and spirits of the impoverished are usually found in percentage points from surveys and from studies done on a nameless faceless demographic. Vance offers the unique, insider perspective of poverty, and sociocultural norms that perpetuate it, and offers his own ideas as to why it continues to prevail against the desire for “the American Dream”. This insight into that world, where cursing, drug abuse, and living off the government dole are quite the norm is especially poignant, because he escaped both the physical aspects of that life and the mindset of that goes with it. He is constantly working on leaving the mental cycle that perpetuates that lifestyle behind as well. The book focuses mostly on his childhood in Kentucky and in Ohio, with vivid views of his Mamaw and his Papaw, who each encouraged him to grow into more than the seemingly predestined deadbeat lifestyle encouraged by the society around him. Each of those places has a great deal to do with who he is, and the experiences he chronicles. The standards he was raised by are the basis for the whole problem with the community he called his home. When I began reading Hillbilly Elegy, I was not quite sure what to expect. This book was not what I anticipated. Vance sets forth his narrative in vivid detail, vivid detail that pained my soul and offended my sense of righteous morality. I found parts of myself in the boy he was, and in the man he became, and recognized many of the situations he lived through. The overall feel for the story is just as the title implies, as an elegy to the hillbilly he has been and the lifestyle that perpetuated by the mindset of that demographic, which is leading to its slow demise. In triumph, loss, tragedy, and the deepest love, this book is most definitely one to pick up in order to see a new perspective of a vicious lifecycle perpetuated by lack of education, means and desire to do better, and a marvelous example of what a man can achieve with a little help and a lot of hard work.