Smitchy's Reviews > Hillbilly Elegy

This is a fascinating and personal look at the disenfranchised poor white people of America's rust belt. Vance gives us all a glimpse of the social, economic, religious, and political influences on the breakdown of working class society in America.
Vance is an exception to the usual in his home town and family - not only was he the first in his immediate family to graduate college, he was the first in his extended family to graduate law school.
His mother's love of education, his grandparents encouragement and insistence on finishing school, a stint in the marines and the experience of seeing extreme poverty in other parts of the world motivated him to achieve what most people in his life couldn't even imagine - but something that most of us would take for granted
He is educated, employed, and is happily married. These might not seem like massive achievements but in the world Vance grew up in employment, education, and emotional stability are not the norm.
Intergenerational violence, drug & alcohol abuse, and a never ending stream of step-fathers marked Vance's early life. He moved between his mother's house and his grandmother's - later living entirely with the latter in his final years of high school as his mother's substance abuse took it's toll.

This is a story of one person's (and one family's) experience - but it echoes what is happening in the larger society as a whole and the attitudes go a long way to explaining the rise of Trump and rise of distrust American's have in science, authority, and the press. As a non- American I found it fascinating and I wonder about the parallels in Australian society.