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Hillbilly Elegy

a Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
Apr 10, 2017Bududo rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
The author tells the story of his upbringing in eastern Kentucky and later Ohio within a family with colorful characters, violent culture, and finely honed sense of honor but with little connections with aspiring upward mobile middle class America. The author manages to raise above the expectations for his family and culture by enlisting in the Marines, graduating from Ohio State, and getting a law degree from Yale. The book resonated with me to some extent: I was born & raised in rural east Tennessee, enlisted in the Marines out of high school, and received a graduate college degree. This back ground lets me appreciate the dissonance of outlook and culture differences between the working class and Ivy league elites of America. The aspect of the book where the author is tenuous ground the impulse to generalize from his specific experience and background. A number of times, he asserts that his neighbors and friends have similar experiences. Even so, it is questionable to extrapolate from this experience to large portions of the populace. Regardless, this story is compelling and well written.