Shelby *trains flying monkeys*'s Reviews > Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

J.D Vance's grandparents set the basis for this life story. They move from the hills of Kentucky to Ohio chasing a better life. J.D.'s life is in both places. He does live a life that is very familiar here in the southeast. His real dad gives him up, he is told by his mom and Mamaw that his dad doesn't want him anymore. He is adopted by one of his mother's many men. Who also ends up leaving. J.D.'s mom is a revolving door of different men. (I'm not judging her as I see this lifestyle taking place around me daily.)

She does manage to end up with nursing degree but then drugs move into her life and she loses even that. Mamaw and Papaw are the saving graces in this man's life. They fought tooth and nail early in their marriage and ended up living at different places and visiting each other during the day. BUT they did install some confidence in this boy.
This seems to be typical in this area. My Gran also took me in from a bad homelife and she was as rowdy as Mamaw is in this book. Once when I took her grocery shopping she pulled out her gun and flopped it on the counter and about gave the clerk a heart attack. She didn't cuss as much as Mamaw did but I may just have glossed over that memory.

The book is also pretty political, pointing out that most people from this area used to vote Democratic with a vengeance but things they have changed. He takes a look at whether it was President Obama's demeanor that turned average poor southerner's against him.
Barack Obama strikes at the heart of our deepest insecurities. He is a good father while many of us aren’t. He wears suits to his job while we wear overalls, if we’re lucky enough to have a job at all. His wife tells us that we shouldn’t be feeding our children certain foods, and we hate her for it—not because we think she’s wrong but because we know she’s right.

This does strike a cord with me because I've seen the millions upon millions of facebook posts that my friends and family have posted.
Is that why we now have Trump coming into office? He was more approachable to the middle and lower class than Hillary? I remember everyone loving Bill Clinton, but truthfully he was more approachable than his wife was.
Who knows? I'm not about to get into a political post. I just observe and do my own thing. Cuz I had a Gran that did teach me to be my own person also.

This book did tend to make me think, I laughed with him when Mamaw would blurt out her opinion and I even teared up several times. The reasoning for my rating falls for some of the back patting he did. I got bored as shit in those parts.
He does admit to having lots of help on his climb out of bad circumstances to go on to the Marines and Yale Law. So I'll give him props for that.