Hillbilly Elegy

Book review for Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance. I rated it 4 stars Hillbilly Elegy is a memoir written by JD Vance who is, of course, the current vice president of the USA. The book was published in 2016, at which time Vance was not yet in politics. Back then he didn’t seem to have any great love for Trump, in public calling him an “idiot” and even privately comparing him to Hitler. In an unexpected turn of events though, I think the book helped with his sudden rise into politics. My initial impression on reading Hillbilly Elegy is that I don’t really know how someone who wrote this can end up as Trump’s right hand man. Vance is Yale-educated, and although I wouldn’t say his writing style is going to win any awards, it’s a fairly solid book. The book itself doesn’t have any strong political overtones, although you can make the assumption that Vance is at least right wing-leaning. As an example, he asks how can hillbillies can improve their lot in life and comments “I don’t know what…