According to my dictionary, an elegy is "A mournful poem; especially a poem composed to lament one who is dead." J.D. Vance's bestselling Hillbilly Elegy - A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (#657) doesn't quite fit that definition, but the poor white, mostly rural, way of life Mr. Vance describes appears to be disappearing from the American landscape. Although Mr. Vance's roots are firmly planted there, the choices he has made to shape his own future have made him an anomaly in that culture. His story documents that it is not always feasible or easy to straddle such a wide divide.
I found the book interesting, depressing and maddening in turns. What Vance describes in his memoir I have seen for myself working in different parts of our country. Poverty, violence, unemployment, alcoholism and drug addiction all play their roles here. Even though he never actually uses the term "white privilege", it is strongly implied. I found myself asking the question: if Vance could lift himself out of a life with no prospects by his own efforts, why can't or why don't more follow his example? When did it become okay to take a job and either not show up for it, or spend the time at work hiding out in the bathroom on multiple thirty minute breaks during the day? Being fired under those circumstances seems to be just an excuse to "blame the man" for self-inflicted economic woes.
Do I feel sorry that such a way of life seems doomed? Not really. Despite Mr. Vance's defense of it, hillbilly culture didn't have much to recommend it as far as I am concerned. He does do a good job of explaining how our current political climate has emerged, however. For that reason alone, it's worth reading Hillbilly Elegy to visit an America that many of us didn't even realize existed.
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