Hillbilly
Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
(Harper Collins, 2016, $12.59/15.99) has been on the NY Times
Best Seller List for forty-nine weeks, and at the time of this
writing, stands at number two. This touching, revealing, warm, sad,
and inspiring memoir, written by a Yale Law School graduate whose
childhood was spent in the hills of eastern Kentucky and the migrated
community of Middletown, OH, opens many sores while explaining in
the most human and personal terms possible the pain and
misunderstanding that harms working class and poor white Americans in
the Hheartlands. Throughout this tale Vance sometimes mentions
findings of academic studies and other research, using them to
support or introduce his own poignant experiences, but, most of all,
this is the story of one man's ability to persevere in an environment
where success such as he has experienced is rare, and , according to
him psychically costly as well as economically expensive.
Living within a home with serial
father figures coming and going and an alcoholic, drug addicted
mother, he attributes the source of his core values to life in rural
Jackson, Kentucky in the hills and hollers of Appalachia with his
Mamaw and any number of uncles and cousins. He describes on academic
paper in which the authors suggest that “hillbillies learn from an
early age to deal with uncomfortable truths by avoiding them, or by
pretending better truths exist, a characteristic of bluegrass music,
too. Vance refuses to look the others way.
Vance tracks the two major migrations
from Appalachia to the industrial mid-west, particularly Middletown,
OH, which were mirrored in the South, mid-South and New England, the
depression era migrations and the post-WWII migration of returning
veterans. He examines how the regions prospered and then died off
with the decline of America industrial might, leaving abandoned
neighborhoods, unemployment, and drug dependency behind, attributing
this to both bad government policies and globalism.
Vance consistently refers to himself
and his family as being poor and then at other times being “working
class.” Joan C. Williams, in
White
Working Class seems to make a clear distinction between the
two while Vance vacillates. He talks about “his people,” Kentucky
migrants to southern Ohio, as often living off the dole, not working,
and being plagued by drugs and violence, yet also talks about an
uncle who escapes to the middle class, and his mother who, despite
being an addict, was a nurse who was able to work a good deal of the
time. He glories, however, in his extended family, his many uncles
who provide him with male role models in both positive and negative
ways. At times he seems remarkably judgmental, while at others,
forgiving.
As Vance matures through adolescence,
he begins to see the disjointures between both liberal and
conservative points of view. He sees many of the government programs
as well meaning but ineffective while the conservative solutions were
disciplinary and draconian. In his reading of sociology, while in
high school, he began to realize that the situation of black people
described in his readings about black America contained the same
dilemmas as did the lives and existence of the white working poor
from Appalachia. “Our Elegy is a sociological one, yes, but it is
also about psychology and community and culture and faith.” (144)
He's writing about religion, work, and family when he observes the
deep “cognitive dissonance between the world we see and the values
we preach.” (147)
As Vance prepares to attend Yale Law
School he explains in touching, no-holds-barred language why a person
like him, growing up in poverty, bedeviled by the rigors of having a
drug addicted mother living with multiple husbands, and seemingly
inured to violence and loss could reject the attractions of both the
left and the right. These chapters, presented within the context of
an actual life lived in poverty and difficulty, if not despair, bring
so many working class and poor white men, especially, to accept so
much patently untrue or misleading material in seeking to understand
who they are, why they got that way, and how difficult it is to
extricate oneself. In short, Vance asserts, it's easier for many to
blame “the other” than it is to do the hard analysis of one's own
choices, accept the verdict, and get to work to change things. What
sets J.D. Vance apart is his ongoing optimism, despite all evidence
to the contrary.
Interestingly,
Hillbilly Elegy can also stand as a “How To” book for
those seeking to find their own way to a different place in both the
workplace and in society. For instance, the non-verbal behavioral
cues of social class are significantly different than the behaviors
that pass for progressing in working class employment and social
environments. Vance shows himself always to be exceptionally alert to
what's going on around him. As he gains in self confidence, his
ability to ask questions of those he trusts increases. He's also a
very fast learner. Nevertheless he owns to deep feelings of
abandoning the culture from which he comes while yearning to become
part of that with which he's not, yet, thoroughly familiar. However,
the struggle is neither easy nor always successful.
J.D. Vance
Throughout
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,
Vance scatters data and information from relevant sociological and
psychological writing to illuminate the points he makes, to give them
a solid theoretical context. Such use of accurate research
information never seems intrusive or fault-finding. Rather, it seeks
to help a reader generalize from the highly personal revelation of
the pain and confusion of Vance's childhood. It helps the reader
gain understanding and perspective without ever excusing either those
who raised him or his own mis-understandings, missed paths, and
possibly botched relationships. He bravely opens the scars on his
psyche, examines them, faces their consequences, and comes out the
other side a stronger and better person. His painstaking honesty with
the reader and his courage are never in doubt. This is not a book for
the reader to quarrel with. Rather, it requires being good listeners,
seeking to find the truths as they apply to them. Some would
prescribe better, more effective programs. Others view the problems
of poverty and drug addiction as the fault of the victim. While,
ultimately, Vance looks towards personal responsibility for life, he
fully understands the necessity for a compassionate government and
individual acceptance of responsibility working together to make
progress possible for all. I bought the book and read it on my Kindle
app.
