Hillbilly Elegy – Book Review

The memoir by J. D. Vance, now President Trump's Vice-Presidential nominee, stands at 264 pages long but it is an easy and comfortable read. It centers around Vance's early years growing up in a fractured Appalachian family that lived in Ohio but had roots in the hills of rural Kentucky. At times it is spiced with "F" bombs that seem to be included in a nonchalant fashion. With the driving force behind the memoir being the internal conflict, J.D. Vance feels as he navigates entering the world-at-large and learns differing viewpoints from what his hillbilly roots have taught him.

While mostly a narrative memoir there are some relevant social issues pertinent to today's society that are brought up in the elegy. For a while Vance's family moved to Ohio, as many of the hard knock folks in the West Virginia and Kentucky regions were apt to do, by the time Vance enters the picture the beginnings of the rust belt in Ohio are manifesting itself. With the demands for cultural entertainment in the forms of the local theater diminishing as the people who would be interested in such were forced to move away from Vance's Ohio hometown to find better opportunities.

Many readers will also be able to relate to Vance's experiences in terms of broken families. As he is raised primarily by his grandmother, for whom he retains a strong sense of loyalty and fondness. And for whom the reader is left with a sense that the elegy is primarily written. Although, she does come across as a rather stern and hard woman. Since Vance's main early childhood family consisted of his grandmother and sister, many readers can relate when he is completely devastated at finding out that his sister is only his half-sister, biologically speaking.

In recent years, J. D. Vance has made the conversion to Catholicism with his wife retaining her Hindu faith. And in his memoir his bewilderment about religion is reflected. For some of his hillbilly relatives (hillbilly in this sense being a term of endearment that the author himself uses) refuse to go to Church out of concern that gays are prominent in Church and will make people homosexual if they go to Church. Yet, as Vance grows up he sees that the social structure and unit of a Church would be beneficial for financially marginalized people such as those in Appalachia who are in need of a support system.

There are several notable scenes throughout the memoir. With one particularly touching scene being the pride Vance feels when he is able to afford a simple fast-food dinner for all of his family after he joins the United States Marine Corps. But given that J. D. Vance is now a vice-presidential nominee on the ticket of one of the two major U.S. political parties, what is perhaps the most powerful aspect of the memoir is seeing the impact of the GI Bill being played out in action. Sponsored by U.S. Representative Edith Norse, a United States Representative who was the first woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts and a very powerful voice for veterans who was also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the G.I. Bill provided educational and financial benefits for veterans returning home from war. And it is through these educational benefits that Vance obtained from his service in the Marine Corps that he is later able to attend college at Ohio State University. Where he prepared himself well enough for the LSAT, the law school admissions test, to the point where he scored high enough to get into Yale Law.

And while the United States Marine Corps prepared Vance for the rigors he would apply to his academic pursuits; it is actually his girlfriend-at-the-time-now-wife who prepares him for the intricacies of a more educated society at Yale. As Vance encounters professors who are dismayed at someone with a mere public college education being admitted into the prestigious ivy league school of law. And his wife guides him as he learns the manners of more polite society.

When this memoir was first published in June of 2016, it was just months before Donald J. Trump won his first presidential campaign. And it spent time at the top of The New York Times bestseller list in August 2016 and January 2017. Many political pundits have remarked in recent years over Donald J. Trump's ability to relate to the common man in the rural parts of the United States in spite of his privileged life as a New York billionaire. And in J.D. Vance he has found a running mate who doesn't shun the public school educated classes like Vance's Yales professors once did, but someone knows the rural white underprivileged people, well.

Luisa Reyes is an attorney in Tuscaloosa with a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Judson, a master's degree in library science, and a law degree from Samford's Cumberland School of Law. She is also a piano instructor and vocalist.