A book so highly praised by Jennifer Senior, New York Times says:
“A compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped drive the politics of rebellion… Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance as inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he’s done so in a vocabulary intelligible for both Democrats and Republicans.”
David Brooks, New York Times says:
“[Vance’s] description of the culture he grew up in is essential reading for this moment in history.”
Emily Esfahani Smith, Wall Street Journal, the most laughable review I’m sharing says:
“Hillbilly Elegy is a beautiful memoir but it is equally a work of cultural criticism about white working-class America… a riveting book.”
Okay, everyone is entitled to their opinions as we all view books from our own perspectives. The books title is either an oxymoron or was intended to show even more discourse between the very people J.D. Vance grew up with and middle-class society; or all that fancy education Vance obtained was a complete waste of money.
Based on Merriam-Webster dictionary to understand just the word elegy you actually have to understand three words. Both words I know many I went to high school with do not know the meaning of without first looking them up. The third word you need to understand it in the terms of poetry.
Elegy: a poem in elegiac couplets
elegiac (adjective): or, relating to, or consisting of two dactylic hexameter lines the second of which lacks the arsis in the third and sixth feet.
You now need to fall to the second definition “written or consisting of elegiac couplets” and third meaning “noted for having written poetry in such couplets.”
Just who the heck was Vance writing this for? Surely the target audience was NOT the very people who raised him. But complex words and definitions were not enough here, the first word in the title is Hillbilly and as defined:
hillbilly: a person from a backwoods area.
This is the only definition in the Mirriam-Webster dictionary. The only one. Now let that title sink in, “Hillbilly Elegy”. With this title what Vance portrays to me is “I give you a hillbilly poem, because a hillbilly doesn’t know poems should rhyme or be short.” I have seen and read poems, books of poems, but never have I read a novel that is ONE poem.
In the first part he talks of how poor his family was, trouble with his mother’s divorces, living with his Mamaw (grandmother) and how she raised him. An often retold story of pretty much anyone who has lived live poor and not really specific to his “hillbilly” raising.
Vance goes on about his military career and how he was not ready for college or life as an adult. After all he was a “marine”. But surely anyone who has joined the Marines has the right to carry the name with them throughout life.
Then comes Ohio State years and finally Yale. I found the story about Yale quite the contradiction. He spends all of this prior to saying how people in southern Ohio, Kentucky and across the Appalachians refuse to leave to go find work, refuse to do what is needed to get an education including how parents are helping their children to fail. No wonder so many from the Appalachians feel this was a major insult to the people they really are.
At any rate, J.D. learns of “social networking” and how this aids you “getting where you want to go.” I think everyone missed he is really saying he changed, became what they wanted him to be in order to chase his money. To wash himself of the very places he grew up in, to escape reality of who he is.
Throughout the journey of reading you can read of his shame of his family. Vance would tell friends his mom was a nurse when she had lost her license and was no longer a nurse. She did not retire from the profession as Vance more than willingly talks about his mom’s drug addiction problems. Yes, it was her choice and she made it based on what she had before her. I do NOT condemn anyone who struggled with any form of dependency until they never get help and then I still do not condemn; but feel badly how society and life left them feeling so hopeless they had no other option. I wonder how we can stop that cycle today.
The reality of this story is J.D. Vance changed, he played the game of Yale, becoming what the next interviewer wanted, the next career step wanted. He even started a non-profit that he closed right after being elected to congress.
J.D. Vance’s story is one of a person who changed. So J.D. what happened to that kid who thought he would never graduate high school, college, etc.? Where is he?
Yet today he is now the vice-presidential running mate of Donald J. Trump. Vance who claims he is of the people and came from hillbilly roots. Someone who gave up on the reality of the world and no longer has a clue what the people of his roots live like today.
When i bought and started reading Hillbilly Elegy I hoped for genuine heart; what I got was the life of a young boy who grew to realize the only way forward is to be what you’re not.
