Book Review of
Hillbilly Elegy
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class.
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
Lynn's Review
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance was one of my favorite books of 2016. It is a powerful memoir of a man who overcame a very difficult childhood to become a graduate of Yale Law School and now the Vice President Candidate.
In Hillbilly Elegy J.D. Vance shares his story of his difficult childhood in the Rust Belt. He shares an honest look at his life. It is a tough subject, but I think it is an important one that many people don’t want to talk about. It is real-life stuff that is not easy to read at all. But this book is the reality of life for many people.
This book takes place in the Appalachian mountains of the country. Some of what it deals with is unique to that area, but much of it is a reality all over America. I think many families will be able to relate in some way to this story.
The warning I would put on this book is that it deals with tough subjects and has a lot of language in it. Some language helped explain the story better, but some could have been left out.