Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (Large Print) [Large Print]

By J.D. Vance

Book Overview

Hillbilly Elegy recounts Vice President J.D. Vance's powerful origin story...

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate now serving as the Vice President of the United States, an incisive 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.

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"You will not read a more important book about America this year."--The Economist

"A riveting book."--The Wall Street Journal

"Essential reading."--David Brooks, New York Times

This bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis--that of white working-class Americans in the Rust Belt. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported 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, offering a searing inside look at poverty in America.

The Vance family story, a powerful example of the struggle for social mobility, begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.'s grandparents were "dirt poor and in love," and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, addiction, poverty, and family trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history.

A deeply moving story about Appalachian culture, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.

What does it take to break a cycle of poverty and trauma that spans generations?

A Raw Look at the White Working Class: Go beyond the headlines for a deeply personal account of a people in crisis, from the hollers of Kentucky to the factory towns of Ohio.The Legacy of Addiction and Trauma: Witness the devastating impact of alcoholism and abuse as one family grapples with the demons that followed them from Appalachia.An Unlikely Path to the Ivy League: Follow J.D. Vance's improbable journey from a former marine to a Yale Law School graduate, showing what upward mobility truly feels like.The Fraying American Dream: An urgent, searingly honest meditation on what happens when the promise of a better life seems to slip away for an entire segment of the country.

• Format: Paperback
• Large Print: Yes
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0063438356
• ISBN13: 9780063438354
• Release Date: October 2024
• Publisher: Harper Large Print
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Worst book I’ve ever read!!!

I am a very proud Tennessean. I graduated from The University of Tennessee. I have never been so offended by a man, who in all actuality, was given the world by exploiting people on the premise that he was born poor and actually thought he was a hillbilly. I’ve asked people who were born and raised in Ohio, and they all have no use for him! DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME ON READING THIS BOOK!!!!

Defiant noxious!!!!!!!

I wouldn't read anything by this evil man if you paid me big bucks!!!!!!!!

Offensive, inaccurate, and disingenuous to those with a white trash background.

This just another retelling about how awful poor white people are, it's simply casts aspersions on the poor hard living white people of the Appalachian areas. This was a campaign book for the author to prepare for his political career first as senator paid for by the billionaire/Epstein class Peter Thiel, and then his vice presidential run, also boosted by the billionaire/Epstein class Theil and other billionaires, who realized how malleable this gentleman is, and how he would sell out everything to achieve his ambitions I was in tennessee and visited the museum of appalachia, and you would not find anything in this book that would be reflected in the reality of their existence. I was at the Museum of the Appalachian this past week. those people had morals, cared for their community, didn't exploit each other, and they didn't slam each other because they were poor which this pulp book does repetitively. also, their names were important to them. So they did not change them repetitively, like "Mr.Vance" or, James Donald Bowman, or James David Hamel (J.D.'s actual former names) I attempted to read it because I thought it would be told from a insider's perspective as my mother and parents were white trash too. I had not experience before. it was simply a repeat of the elites going back to the British aristocracy, about how "awful" poor people who have hard living are and how "terrible" they are. This attitude of the elites is just pathetic and pitiful. Such a contemptible attitude is best express in the phrase by Hillary Clinton dismissing Trump's followers as " deplorables." I must confess, I could not finish this disingenuous book. it is not written from the perspective of an insider, but written from somebody who wishes to distance themselves from how he was raised. It was so inaccurate and so biased with a clearly with a typical, contemptuous, elitist attitude toward regular people who happened to be poor. If you want to see where JD Vance got his ideas for this diatribe, look no further than the attitudes of the British, Russian Tzars and French Aristocratic elites beginning in the 1600s. Better yet read the book "White Trash: A 400 Year History." However, do not give the time of day to this disgusting dismissal of our fellow citizens by this self loathing, identity chameleon.

Authentic insights

As a person who also grew up in the rust belt, Mr. Vance gives a clear and authentic view from the inside. He delivers hope and indeed a road map out. Brava! He gives hope

Thought it was more of his Life growing up and family

It is all Political and I hate politics! I would never have purchased this and his opinions

Good and insightful memoir

I really enjoyed how JD pulled through all of the hardships and found his way. It is a very inspiring book. Definitely better than the movie. This book kept me engaged.

Nope

Never would I lower myself to read anything written by a racist pedo supporter. The negative reviews make me feel better about my fellow American readers.

Don’t buy this

This book is terrible

Complete

Shyt

Feels like AI

If you took a gaggle of Russian bots and tasked them to write a book, this is probably what they'd write. "It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times?"

Read the book and watch the movie

Learn about JD Vance, our Vice President. He had a hard childhood and his grandmother was his rock. He raised himself up and made something of himself. Very interesting story.

Not respectful to Appalachain Culture

This book is written with bias and malicious intent. It is meant to support a political narrative which blames individuals for their situations and ignores societal inequalities. The author ignores the strength and courage of people in Appalachia.

Doesn't deserve to be called non fiction

Fluff and outright lies

Hardship and Success

An interesting story about growing up and away from poverty which so few escape.

No From Me

Check out Bell Hooks for an accurate Appalachian experience book. This is a foul book.

Not kid friendly, emotional and telling

Love or hate his politics, this book explains a lot about them. Definitely a huge emotional lift to get through. Lots of people saying they didn't finish, I'd encourage them to read just the last two chapters which cover his final thoughts

down to earth story of JD Vance

Reveals the down to earth story of how JD Vance become who he is today and those who influenced him.

Would love the whole book

Would love to have the whole book. It’s missing the first four pages, you can see they’ve been ripped out. Why? Why would anyone rip pages out of a book. I wanted so badly to read this book but again the first four pages are gone. Why would this book be for sale again this one said very good I would say NOT acceptable because it’s missing the first four pages. I love the idea of saving money but this is the second book I’ve received that I would not have bought if I’d known its condition. Please check the books before you sell them.

I enjoyed it

It was heartbreaking to read I can't imagine to live like this. I have great respect for Mr. Vance. Not a political thing I enjoyed reading it

Very Insightful

Having never lived in Appalachia it is hard for me to review this one way or the other. I will say it was a compelling read that kept me interested. I understand living in poverty because we were poor, but my family was always employed so I cannot relate to living off the government dole. The one time I tried to get help I was turned down so I never tried again. Very insightful and gives me respect for Mr. Vance. Read it for yourselves and see what you think.

Resilience

I could not put this book down! What struck me the most is the resilient determination of a young hillbilly boy who was born into a life surrounded by poverty yet managed to live through the toughest of circumstances. We are all born into and among different types of environments. This young boy along with his family from the Appalachian mountains, an area that is unusual in it's own right, a place where most children who have lived their entire lives there, having never left their impoverished lifestyle while continually being looked upon by city folks as being unrefined. This is a story of love of family, their strengths and their weaknesses, yet they are forever bound through the unity of family, with the use of tuff love, all that is required for their success through all obstacles. Its story contains the harshness of behavior and its consequences, yet it also holds some level of humor leaving no doubt that the love of family is most important and the willingness to change ones circumstances by beating all odds in order to rise and live a successful life is possible!

A Book Everyone Should Read

At first, I thought it was another sad book about the underserved people in areas of the south and I didn't care to read more of that. But instead, it is a wonderful book about the writer striving and overcoming his growing up years in Eastern Kentucky and, while keeping his good and not so good memories of family and the poverty of his surroundings, overcome all to join the Marine Corps, then using that training and discipline to go on to become an Ivy League lawyer. Instead of running away from his past to become an Eastern elite, he chose to take another path and use his considerable talents to contribute in other ways. Having lived a somewhat similar early life in small town middle Illinois, I related strongly to this story. It is moving and one of the best books I have read in a long time. I hope this is not the author's one and only book.