A review by monicalaurette
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.75

I’m not one to read non-fiction works unless it is for school. Very rarely have I read a biography or biographical type book as well. Just not the type of book that I tend to lean towards. Not to knock these types of books either, I’m sure they’re great. I just like dragons and elves and the fae.

This book came to me from a friend who was moving away and let me go through their books that they were giving away. I thought the topic of the book and that it was a slight biography of the hillbilly lifestyle drew me to it. I could see how some of the hillbilly lifestyle could spill over into my life growing up (maybe because past hillbillies came into my areas and brought their culture, just not as much as Ohio perhaps).

Hillbillies are definitely something that I used to mock while growing up, because I was made to see them as someone lower than me because of where they lived and how they lived. But as I’ve grown up, faced my own struggles, and learned more of the struggles of others, I know that it was wrong to say those things, and that sometimes we have the same struggles that have come from the same foes.

I was glad that the author brought in the fact that sometimes the struggles of hillbillies mirrored the struggles of Black and Latino and other POC communities, and also mentioned that sometimes the hillbillies don’t have it as bad. I just feel that maybe mentioning the racism aspect that also plagues the POC communities that make their struggles so different and complex compared to the [white] hillbilly communities would have been nice to see. Maybe I missed that sentence though.

J.D.’s experience, or parts of it, made me think of my own childhood and my current life. The struggles with family, and even the list of ACE’s he listed had me closing the book and just looking into the distance. I also sometimes would hide the truth of my lifestyle by spending above it or just ignoring it. We may have different [but somewhat similar] lives, and some different views, but I really liked Hillbilly Elegy.

And on that note, I gave Hillbilly Elegy 3.75 stars. I gave it this rating because I felt that at some points it was a little repetitive with the information being talked about in multiple chapters. I also just don’t read these types of books so I tried to like it more than I really did, and that probably made me not like it as much. Or maybe it was because of all the class-issues that the wealthy keep hidden that J.D. brought to light that brought my liking down. So perhaps this rating isn’t warranted, but it’s the one that I’m giving.

This book is great to read if you want to learn about communities that are different from your own, the secrets that the wealthy and successful hide from others, and maybe some insight into your own family and community life, I would give this book a try. I’m glad that I did.