HILLBILLY ELEGY by J.D. Vance, Doubleday.
The name Donald Trump never appears in this memoir of a hillbilly lad from Kentucky who climbed out of poverty to graduate from Yale Law School. It’s the story of one man’s rise but also of a “family and culture in crisis”. His family, his culture – and the result is an insider’s account of the poor, white, angry Americans who turned to Trump in droves, for reasons none of the experts could explain. It became a touchstone text during the presidential election, and sold millions, but it’s Vance’s honesty about life on the margins of modern America which is the power of this book. All Vance’s conflicts – he loves hillbilly loyalty; despises their drug abuse, welfare dependency and neglect of their children – are on the page, making for a revelatory read.