About the book
J. D. Vance's memoir uses his own family to examine the decline of America's white working class. His grandparents left Breathitt County, Kentucky, after World War II for Middletown, Ohio, hoping to escape Appalachian poverty, but alcoholism, violence and trauma followed the family, and his mother struggled with drug addiction. With his grandparents as his guardians, Vance went on to serve in the Marines and to graduate from Ohio State and Yale Law School. He asks how far Appalachian culture itself feeds the region's troubles. His Yale professor Amy Chua persuaded him to write it, and it later became a Ron Howard film starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams.
Bill Gates called it a terrific, heartbreaking book in his summer reading picks, Ramit Sethi named it one of the best books of 2016 and a devastating look at a working-class family's struggles, and Ryan Holiday called it a well-written gem.
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This book has 4 recommendations
Ryan Holiday (Founder/Brass Check)
In terms of other surprising memoirs, I found JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy to be another well-written gem.
Tudor Mihailescu (Finance and Business Enablement Manager)
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (Vance) is probably least known in my selection, yet I enjoyed a lot. It is less of the actual story it tells, rather by providing a glaring example of ‘there is more than meets the eye’. It shows the power of context to how a certain person is brought up, ends up doing in life. And, at a bigger scale, may explain political or social trends that otherwise appear as a total surprise. Personally, I was reading this book while on the professional side I was working to improve my leading through questions techniques, which also pushes you to have patience to drill to a root cause before jumping off to conclusions.
Bill Gates (Founder/Microsoft)
The disadvantaged world of poor white Appalachia described in this terrific, heartbreaking book is one that I know only vicariously. Vance was raised largely by his loving but volatile grandparents, who stepped in after his father abandoned him and his mother showed little interest in parenting her son. Against all odds, he survived his chaotic, impoverished childhood only to land at Yale Law School. While the book offers insights into some of the complex cultural and family issues behind poverty, the real magic lies in the story itself and Vance’s bravery in telling it.
Ramit Sethi (Founder/GrowthLab)
One of the best books to come out of 2016. Hillbilly Elegy is a devastating look into the struggles of an American working-class family and what that means for a large cultural swath of the country.
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