Memoirs & Coffee Book Group to Discuss "Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance

Bernardsville Library’s book group, Memoirs and Coffee, will meet on Tuesday, September 26 at 10:30 am to discuss "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis" (2016) by J.D. Vance. [The author will not be present.]

The book, from a former Marine and Yale Law School Graduate, is a poignant account of growing up in a poor Appalachian town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class. Part memoir, part historical and social analysis, it is a fascinating consideration of class, culture, and the American dream.

Delving into his own personal story and drawing on a wide array of sociological studies, Vance takes us deep into working class life in the Appalachian region. This demographic of our country has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, and Vance provides a searching and clear-eyed attempt to understand when and how “hillbillies” lost faith in any hope of upward mobility, and in opportunities to come.

J.D. Vance grew up in the Rust Belt city of Middletown, Ohio and the Appalachian town of Jackson, Kentucky. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school and served in Iraq. A graduate of the Ohio State University and Yale Law School, he has contributed to the National Review and is a principal at a leading Silicon Valley investment firm. He now lives in San Francisco.

No registration is needed to come to this free library program. Please call Bernardsville Library at 766-0118 for more information.