J.D. Vance is a graduate of Yale Law School with a promising career and a happy marriage, and roots "in an Ohio steel town that has been hemorrhaging jobs and hope for as long as I can remember." Vance's people were among the many poor who migrated along the "hillbilly highway" from the hills of southeastern Kentucky into the Rust Belt but always considered Kentucky home.
In Hillbilly Elegy, Vance tells of a poverty-stricken community distrustful of outsiders and plagued by addiction, self-defeating attitudes and chaotic home lives. He credits his Mamaw and Papaw with giving him the tools to move beyond that community. Vance graduated from college and law school and achieved a healthy relationship by the slimmest of margins, but not without paying a price: social mobility implies movement "to a theoretically better life, yes, but also away from something." In Vance's case, moving toward financial security and calm meant alienating himself from those he still identifies with: "I am a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart."
Mamaw and Papaw are not saints. Vance's gun-toting grandmother was given to off-color language and threats of violence. Such vivid characters and an eye for nuance are among the strengths of this sincere memoir, an elegy for both the hillbillies Vance has loved, and a large population of struggling, working-class poor. He offers ideas for improving his people's lot: cultural change from within rather than policy. But the bulk of Hillbilly Elegy is just that: a loving remembrance of imperfect but dearly beloved individuals, who did their best with what they had. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia