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Reviews tagging 'Violence'
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
18 reviews
crybabybea's review against another edition
medium-paced
0.25
Fuck this guy. I don't understand why this book is touted as a "compassionate" view of rural white America. I found it poorly researched, hypocritical, and borderline offensive. He frequently gives an opinion by starting with "studies show..." then doesn't cite the study or show any evidence.
I initially wanted to give this book at least one star because I thought the memoir part of it was enjoyable enough, but by the end of the book, with the weirdly disparaging/bootstraps messaging, the stories told about his family and fellow Appalachian people left a bad taste in my mouth. I felt the memoir lacked a sense of self-reflection and cohesion; in fact I found the author to walk back his opinions in weird ways, and it almost came across as having some sort of internalized hatred for himself/the people he grew up around. Then, the second half is spent talking about his time in the military with not much substance or connection to the main thesis of the memoir.
As much as he wants to write this book from the perspective of a poor, hard-working country boy, he is in fact a Yale graduate and a member of the elite class. I seriously hate this book so much I feel like it would be a lie to give it anything other than .25. I still love Mamaw though.
My biggest issue with this book is the touting of bootstraps meritocracy and the author's criticism of the poor working class. He says multiple times that he doesn't believe in systemic issues, but instead thinks that poor people are lazy and pessimistic. And yes, he even makes the "you're poor cause you spend your money on TVs and iPads LOL!!!!" joke. But somehow I'm supposed to believe that he wrote this book as a eulogy out of compassion and love for his culture, people, and family. Mmkay.
I don't feel like putting my thoughts into a cohesive review format so here's a list of weird things the author said that pissed me off:
I initially wanted to give this book at least one star because I thought the memoir part of it was enjoyable enough, but by the end of the book, with the weirdly disparaging/bootstraps messaging, the stories told about his family and fellow Appalachian people left a bad taste in my mouth. I felt the memoir lacked a sense of self-reflection and cohesion; in fact I found the author to walk back his opinions in weird ways, and it almost came across as having some sort of internalized hatred for himself/the people he grew up around. Then, the second half is spent talking about his time in the military with not much substance or connection to the main thesis of the memoir.
As much as he wants to write this book from the perspective of a poor, hard-working country boy, he is in fact a Yale graduate and a member of the elite class. I seriously hate this book so much I feel like it would be a lie to give it anything other than .25. I still love Mamaw though.
My biggest issue with this book is the touting of bootstraps meritocracy and the author's criticism of the poor working class. He says multiple times that he doesn't believe in systemic issues, but instead thinks that poor people are lazy and pessimistic. And yes, he even makes the "you're poor cause you spend your money on TVs and iPads LOL!!!!" joke. But somehow I'm supposed to believe that he wrote this book as a eulogy out of compassion and love for his culture, people, and family. Mmkay.
I don't feel like putting my thoughts into a cohesive review format so here's a list of weird things the author said that pissed me off:
- Opens up the book with a short-sighted disclaimer that "even though Black people struggle in America, actually white people suffer too and people need to stop viewing things through a racial lens". He also completely denies the history of the term "welfare queen" being used as an insult against poor Black mothers and instead says "every welfare queen I've known has been white" as if that changes the way it has been used to systemically punish and insult Black women? He continues to purposefully ignore race as a factor and fails to acknowledge his privilege, instead claiming that poor people of any race should be able to pull themselves out through hard work and better choices
- Says that addiction is in fact a disease, but then says that it's harmful to believe addiction is a disease because then addicts feel like they have an excuse to never change and never get help
- The second half of the book (coincidentally when the author goes off to the military) devolves into blind patriotism and the author constantly repeats that Americans live in the greatest country in the world and have more opportunities than any other country. But he spends the first half of the book talking about systemic issues (without acknowledging that the issues are systemic) that make America the bad place? And says that the government and corporations are not to blame, but instead people's individual choices? Like the math is not mathing. It's like he got so close to the point so many times and then the cognitive dissonance blinders settled in and he was like "huh, must be I'm just better and more hard-working than everyone else". And yes, I do think it's cringe to cry at "God Bless America", sorry
- Says multiple times that he doesn't think therapy is worthwhile despite acknowledging that he has a high ACES score. I don't think therapy is a perfect end-all-be-all solution, but, with peace and love, this book really shows his lack of self-reflection and healing
- Conservatives never hated Obama because of his race, but because he is a member of the elite class because he is rich. Listen. You can do a super simple google search for "obama racism" and see the incredibly racist imagery and slogans that were popularly used against him at the time.
- Randomly inserts an anecdote about some guy he met in college who spoke out against the Iraq war for being unnecessarily violent and racist. He says this guy has an "objectively bad opinion" because actually the soldiers had to take culture trainings to learn how to not show their feet to the Iraqi people that worked on the American side. No no, no war crimes or dehumanization or racism to be seen here.
No, don't google Abu Ghraib
- In the beginning of the book, talks about how poor people are stupid because they rely on payday loans that ruin their credit and keep them in debt. Then later he talks about how payday loans are good, actually, and not predatory at all, and stinky politicians should stop trying to help poor working class people by taking away the few resources they have. Okay
- Talks about how politicians think they are helping poor people but are so far removed from being poor that they end up making decisions that hurt the people they are trying to help. Btw, this guy is a senator and regularly votes against bills that would significantly help the working class and by 2020 he was fully in support of Donald Trump
- Poor people waste money on expensive Christmas gifts instead of trying to grow their wealth because they want to pretend to be rich and ignore the reality of their lives
No seriously fuck this guy.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Addiction, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse
makaylahart's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Incredibly intimate and informative portrait of poor, rural white Americans. Vance’s position as a self-described “cultural emigrant” provides an incredibly unique perspective that not only offers insight to the problems facing these communities, but also to his personal experiences and coming to terms with impacts of being born within one and escaping the poverty cycle.
To me it felt a little rambling towards the end but the conclusion was strong. At first I wished he’d dived deeper into some aspects of American society creating/encouraging some of these issues (like the two-party political system, big Pharma companies, distribution of wealth, etc) but there could be several more books on those subjects. The book’s tagline perfectly sums up what it is: ‘A memoir of a family and culture in crisis.’ It’s a look at how we got here through a scope largely limited to a single family, which may be exactly people need to read to become more understanding and to give a damn.
To me it felt a little rambling towards the end but the conclusion was strong. At first I wished he’d dived deeper into some aspects of American society creating/encouraging some of these issues (like the two-party political system, big Pharma companies, distribution of wealth, etc) but there could be several more books on those subjects. The book’s tagline perfectly sums up what it is: ‘A memoir of a family and culture in crisis.’ It’s a look at how we got here through a scope largely limited to a single family, which may be exactly people need to read to become more understanding and to give a damn.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse and Violence
sgjohnson2001's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Classism, Death, Drug use, Child abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Grief, and Violence
tesorae's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Violence, and Animal death
Minor: War
daughterofthekingofkings's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness
demartinodoc's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
2.25
I had high hopes for this book, but was really disappointed overall. It comes across as narrow and perhaps incorrect at times- A redeeming factor is acknowledging that it is relatively dated and the author makes repeated references to the fact he is telling it as he remembers. This read may be more enjoyable as a text read and not an audiobook, as overly repetitive sentences about the same exact subject can get a little bit tough to listen to at times. Was very close to not finishing, but it did make me think quite a bit about our current economic systems so I decided to power through (plus, I was in a car and already listening). The author’s lines of thinking can at times literally imply he is smarter or better than going through the trouble of learning more about trauma and other major fields of study from the professionals and instead relies on his own “research”. Interesting read, but probably won’t reread or recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Addiction, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Abandonment and Alcoholism
Minor: Bullying and Violence
dreamofbookspines's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
I cannot in good conscience give Vance a higher rating due to his shitty politics. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The content was interesting, ngl. Yes, it's depressing and heavy and full of terrible people, but as someone who grew up nowhere near these types of circumstances, I was unable to put it down. Vance is a competent writer and makes some good points, even if they are hurtful to the people whom his book is about.
The content was interesting, ngl. Yes, it's depressing and heavy and full of terrible people, but as someone who grew up nowhere near these types of circumstances, I was unable to put it down. Vance is a competent writer and makes some good points, even if they are hurtful to the people whom his book is about.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Alcoholism, and Child abuse
angelasosh's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
2.0
I didn’t know who J.D. Vance was before I started this book and had I known, I would’ve been more hesitant to listen to it. I listened to this as an audiobook and don’t think I would’ve been able to read a physical copy of it as I don’t believe the writing was all that fantastic. As a memoir of his childhood, the book is fine. But I personally felt his analysis of a culture in crisis was lacking; it felt kind of vague to me and i don’t feel he addressed the core of why some Appalachian families struggle the way they do. He analyzed his specific family but missed the mark on the culture as a whole. I won’t argue that his childhood wasn’t difficult, but I do feel he failed to acknowledge some of the privileges that did work to his advantage.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Bullying
tawallah's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Drug abuse, Violence, and Domestic abuse
sophiejohn's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Violence