I don't read a lot of memoirs, but if they are all like this maybe I should read more. I really appreciate Vance's openness and honesty in talking about his own life, his struggles, and, more centrally, those of "his people", the hillbillies of Appalachian Kentucky who often undertook their own great migration to the industrial midwest. He is unflinching about all of it, has a great heart for the micro and a keen eye for the macro, is super-smart and perceptive, and writes in a beautiful, clear style that's a pleasure to read.

Until the conclusion I felt he was being a little bit coy with solutions to the problems he so artfully presents, but I think he was just struggling to understand what the solutions could possibly be. I appreciate that honesty, but I also appreciate that, in the conclusion, he comes down squarely --consistent with his political conservatism-- in favor of the responsibility of the hillbillies themselves for their plight, and the necessity that they themselves take ownership and work to solutions. I am not really free to judge the extent to which this is "fair", since the longer I live the more I come to see big, impersonal social forces moving history and shaping individuals' and communities' fates. But, whatever forces are operating, his exhortation to his people to take responsibility for themselves --to walk the walk of the talk they speak to themselves and each other, to take care of the children they bring into the world, to work hard, to be temperate and forgiving, and all the rest of it-- none of that can hurt, and I think it can help. J.D. Vance's own life gives plenty of evidence that even thin threads of love, patience, selflessness, concern for others, and willingness to take responsibility can make a huge difference. There's plenty of good in the hillbilly culture he comes out of, and I come away not exactly optimistic, but hopeful that it can turn itself around in productive ways, rather than blaming its woes on those who, quite often, simply have their shit together to a greater degree.

Anyway, good read. I recommend it to anyone in the cultural elite (or whatever we are) who wants to see and gain a glimpse of understanding of the "white working class" that is having such a hard time of things economically, socially, in terms of drug dependence and broken families and all of the rest of it, with all of the political consequences that stand out so starkly at this time in the west.