The Australian Women's Weekly

HILLBILLY ELEGY by J.D. Vance, Doubleday.

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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.

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