Recommended by Professor Butcher
Over the winter break, I found myself absolutely engrossed in J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, a memoir that meditates on Vance’s early life within a poor, isolated Appalachian town, one of many that dot the areas directly south and east of us. Part personal narrative and part social critique, Vance’s book considers the implications of class and legacy as they relate to political ideology, and how—in failing to achieve the American dream, a dream many Americans feel was promised to them—a large swath of this nation has come to feel cheated, ignored, and abandoned. The book has been receiving a lot of praise as of late—in part due to its relevance to the 2016 election—and that praise is well-earned. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking book, and it doesn’t hurt that Vance makes frequent reference to Highway 23, just a mile away from here. It reminds you how close these worlds really come.