Half-truths in Hillbilly Elegy

I´ve heard about Hillbilly Elegy by the current US VP J.D.Vance few years back, as a reference for understanding roots of local elites in the US few years back and the book - and the movie made after it - returned into my TBR shortly before the US elections. 

I may reckon that I haven´t paid too much attention to both the topic and the author, until I really started paying more attention to the elites configuration within the current Trump administration. I am not a specialist in US history and politics, but obviously this is an area that cannot be ignored, and the structures of elites is as important as the recent more or less unexpected geopolitical moves. My attention for this book, a memoir ´of a familyand culture in crisis´ was generated by an article about JD Vance´s life story, his family struggles and his achivements. I do have a special interest in such life stories, from rags to riches therefore I couldn´t resist to get the book, that I had access to in audiobook format, read by the author.

Hillbilly is usually referred to unsophisticated individuals, mostly used for the inhabitants of therural Appalachian areas. 

Vance is originary from such a family, with grandparents who never graduated, with an absent father and a mother with a serious drug addiction, plus an impressive number of stepfathers. Spiritual and material poorness and hopelessness. 

I am not going too deep into the critics about what Vance actually doesn´t shared about his life, that may explain how someone with such an incredibly sad family story ended up as the US vice-president. 

But there are no bad people in this story. Even his mother who literally was about to kill him and put Pepsi in his bottle when he was only few months old is still part of his story - and she was invited to his sworn-in ceremony, among others. 

Vance, who before graduating Yale Law School enrolled in the military and even fought in Iraq, is one of the 1% of hillbillies who succeed having a normal life. There is not unusual that people from humble background succeed in life, but they usually do so because at a certain point in their life journey, they receive proper support from teachers, society or religious institutions. Individuals that encouraged hard working individuals, no matter the background. 

The memoir is useful for understanding the mentality of the deep American countryside, but for the JD Vance story itself, I will just collect some of the facts, that do not however fill the whole puzzle. I may take a look to biographies of representatives of Trump administration soon, including JD Vance at a later date though as it is always an interesting riddle to understand the educational and personal background of decision makers.

Rating: 3 stars