‼️ Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance ‼️

 65/∞

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  (4 out of 5)

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📚 Length: 264 pages

🔊Audiobook: 6 hrs and 49 min

Why you should read this book?

💡 To learn more about traumatic childhood of current US Vice President.

💡 To witness what the environment of poor white Americans looks like.

💡 To see that some people can make it against all odds to the top.

It is no secret I am a big admirer of J.D. Vance - the current Vice President of the USA under the 2nd Trump administration. He appears to me as a straight to the point guy who has it all together. 

What sparkled up my interest in his book was a video where J.D. Vance said he was mentally abused, grew up in unstable house, his mom was an addict and so on. Despite all of this, he made it to Yale Law School and served 4 years in the US Army as a marine.

Here are my thoughts on this book:

Hillbillies are rough people in Appalachian Mountains. There are no jobs, people steal, argue and fight with each other. The drug abuse is high.

J.D.’s Childhood

J.D. describing having many different 'adoptive' fathers. I think he mentions that his mother was married at least 5 times. When he as a kid got used to a new father figure in his life, him mom would break up with him/divorced and that was the end of it. J.D. says that he slowly grew tired of getting to know mom’s new boyfriends, because if he got attached to them, they would quickly disappear from his life.

J.D. grew up among hillbillies. By the description rough people who scream, drink, do drugs and fight. When we look on J.D. he looked as lost cause, it was his grandmother (Memo) and his grandfather (Papa) who supported him on his way up. Later in the book J.D. describes the death of his grandfather and later even of his grandmother who he supported finically toward the end of her life. 

0 social mobility

J.D. speaks about how people move from one state in the US into the another, to get a job. The problem is, when the steelworks or whatever company it is they work goes bankrupt, they will become lost causes. The system is unfortunately set up to help these people.

US Marines

J.D. says that he was not ready for the university when he finished high school. He felt that he needs to build up a routine before he went to university. In this way, the US Maries helped him a lot. The commander of his platoon even made sure J.D. did not blew all his  saved money from the army and advised him on basics such as comparing the loan interests before taking one. This also concerned buying a Toyota car instead of BMW. We all know BMW are nice cars, but their maintenance cost is crazy. What you really want when you are buying a car is the reliability and and the lowest maintenance cost possible. If you buy a car above your financial means, it can literally ruin you financially. I mean, I was surprised J.D. did not hear about that up to that point. Nobody taught me in school, but I read a bunch of books on financial literacy incl. Rich dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and The Millionaire Next Door by Stanely and Danko (both book reviewed by der Kaiser 👑).

Yale Law School

J.D. mentions that many people from his surroundings do not applied to Ivy League Schools, because these schools were too good and too expensive. I think it is a pity, because nothing is impossible. J.D. discovered that thanks to his background he had to pay lower tuition fees. Many students from disadvantaged backgrounds do not know about that and end up studying a local state university with higher tuition fees than at Ivy League schools. He still had to pay something, but it was significantly less than the full amount.

From what J.D. says about his time at Yale, I think he was very enriching experience in his classes. As Yale is 90% posh pacifists who never worked a single day in their life, J.D. and his Hillbilly background altogether with the experience of serving in the army must have made him an interesting student to discuss with in the classes. That is exactly how it should be.

Kaiser’s Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 out of 5)  (very recommended read)

I find disturbing how tough J.D. Vance’s. childhood was. It explains to me some of his characteristics while working under the president Trump. 

I think it is a decent book, definitely worth reading.

👉 Buy this book! 👈 through my link and help me build this website! 😊

Feel free to like, share and comment or recommend books/courses you find inspirational yourself. I’m keen to hear about them.

Coming Up Next:

Spare by Prince Harry

Peace 🧘‍♂️✌️🌱