Kruse's Keys: Read "Hillbilly Elegy" to Be Inspired and Saddened

I read J.D. Vance's 2016 memoir "of a family and culture in crisis" in less than two days.  Vance is just a flatout great writer as he tells the story of his life growing up between the Ohio and Kentucky along the redneck Rt. 23.

Amidst all the controversy that surrounded this book's publication in 2016, it's important to understand that this is Vance's story--while he offers commentary of the culture in which he was raised--he's clear that this "hillbilly culture" covers a wide array of experiences and he's only speaking from his own experience. 

His basic argument is that one of the major issues plaguing Appalachian American is the people there feel hopeless and disenfranchised (and not just politically but in all facets of life).  In short, they feel like their choices don't matter.

In Vance's case the only way he was able to rise above these circumstances was due to the reliable and persistent presence of a family member throughout his immediate family's tumultuous arc.  Oh, that and a stint in the Marine Corps. 

All in all, an important book that I read in three days but which I'll be digesting for years to come.

Related Reads:
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmywn Ward


The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Dickerson


American Rust by Philipp Meyer



See our 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.

Key Quotes:

• I'm not saying ability doesn't matter.  It certainly helps.  But there's something powerful about realizing that you've undersold yourself--that somehow your mind confused lack for effort for inability.  This is why, whenever people ask me what I'd most like to change about the white working class, I say, "The feeling that our choices don't matter." The Marine Corps excised that feeling like a surgeon does a tumor. (177)
• People sometimes ask whether I think there's anything we can do to "solve" the problems of my community. I know what they're looking for: a magical public policy solution or innovative government program.  But these problems of faith, family, and culture aren't like a Rubik's cube, and I don't think that solutions (as most understand the term) really exist.  A good friend, who worked for a time in the White House and cares deeply about the plight of the working class, once told me: "The best way to look at this might be to recognize that you probably can't fix these things. They'll always be around. But maybe you can put your thumb on the scale a little for the people at the margins." (238)

Related:
"Winter's Bone"
"Justified"
"The Warmth of Other Suns"