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

Este é um dos melhores livros que li nos últimos tempos. O autor conta sua trajetória de vida desde quando era uma criança em família pobre no interior dos Estados Unidos até quando se formou em Direito em Yale, uma das mais renomadas faculdades dos EUA. Juntamente com sua história de vida, o autor faz uma análise da cultura das pessoas à sua volta e em como essa cultura reforça o comodismo, prejudica a meritocracia, e torna quase impossível que pessoas pobres tenham chances (e condições) de sair da pobreza. Apesar de o livro aparentemente tratar de uma cultura diferente da nossa, achei que muitas das descrições e análises se aplicam bastante à realidade brasileira.

This book is worth reading even if you don,t like or trust the author who is running for Vice President! He rightfully calls attention to the serious problems which have been long neglected in certain parts of the U,S. Hopefully the next administration will try to do something positive for these unfortunate Americans! Thank you Amazon!

It’s rather hard to believe in the truthfulness of a chap who isn’t an actor but has made so many changes in his name. Moreover, he also has absolutely turned 180 degrees in his attitude towards Donald Trump — from Never Trumper to Obedient Crumpet. And his views on women are alarming to say the least

Sensitively written book about American 'Hillbilly's' - the blue-collar, working class from the Appalachian region. Vance is an insider, who has grown up seeing a society in crisis due to the lack of blue-collar jobs like coal mining. He has profound insights - that even though his grandparents' generation had a great work ethic, it seems to have suffered in the next generation; that even though there is fierce family loyalty among the people, the nuclear family structure itself is crumbling and as is to be expected, children are the unwitting victims. I was deeply moved by the book - it is written with great empathy coupled with objectivity, a result of growing up a 'hillbilly' and being able to take an outside-in view due to stints in the Marines and studying at Yale.

There is a lot to take in here, even for someone that's seen this life up close in many of its many guises. While ostensibly about the particular culture of the West Virginia Scots-Irish underclass, anyone that has seen white poverty in America's flyover states will recognize much of what is written about here. It is a life on the very edge of plausibility, without the sense of extra-family community that serves as a stabilizing agent in many first-generation immigrant communities or communities of color. Drugs, crime, jail time, abusive interactions without any knowledge of other forms of interaction, children growing up in a wild mix of stoned mother care, foster care, and care by temporary "boyfriends," and in general, an image of life on the edge of survival where even the heroes are distinctly flawed for lack of knowledge and experience of any other way of living. This is a story that many of the "upwardly mobile middle class" in the coastal areas, often so quick to judge the lifestyles and politics of "those people" in middle America, has no clue about. I speak from experience as someone that grew up in the heartland but has spent years in often elite circles on either coast. Two things struck me most about this book. First, the unflinching yet not judgmental portrayal of the circumstances and of the people involved. It is difficult to write on this subject without either glossing over the ugliness and making warm and fuzzy appeals to idealism and human nature, Hollywood style, or without on the other hand descending into attempts at political persuasion and calls to activism. This book manages to paint the picture, in deeply moving ways, without committing either sin, to my eye. Second, the author's growing realization, fully present by the end of the work, that while individuals do not have total control over the shapes of their lives, their choices do in fact matter—that even if one can't direct one's life like a film, one does always have the at least the input into life that comes from being free to make choices, every day, and in every situation. It is this latter point, combined with the general readability and writing skill in evidence here, that earns five stars from me. Despite appearances, I found this to be an inspiring book. I came away feeling empowered and edified, and almost wishing I'd become a Marine in my younger days as the author decided to do—something I've never thought or felt before. I hate to fall into self-analysis and virtue-signaling behavior in a public review, but in this case I feel compelled to say that the author really did leave with me a renewed motivation to make more of my life every day, to respect and consider the choices that confront me much more carefully, and to seize moments of opportunity with aplomb when they present themselves. Given that a Hillbilly like the author can find his way and make good choices despite the obstacles he's encountered, many readers will find themselves stripped bare and exposed—undeniably ungrateful and just a bit self-absorbed for not making more of the hand we've been dealt every day. I'm a big fan of edifying reads, and though given the subject matter one might imagine this book to be anything but, in fact this book left me significantly better than it found me in many ways. It also did much to renew my awareness of the differences that define us in this country, and of the many distinct kinds of suffering and heroism that exist. Well worth your time.