A truthful, candid, often painful, eye-opening account of the class struggle that no one wants to acknowledge in the "greatest county on earth". 
 Having just finished White Trash, I can't help but compare the two. They tell the same tale. White Trash takes the expansive, scholarly, 400 years of history approach that can come across as dry. Hillbilly Elegy takes the opposite approach; it focuses on one family, has more personal observations than peer reviewed facts, and is nearly impossible to put down. Both also come to the same conclusion: we have a problem here that doesn't have a simple solution. 
 I took a few key points from Hillbilly Elegy that bear repeating. First, in a world with social mobility, you can't simply leave one world and enter another. You bring pieces of your past with you, for better or worse. As such, even if you move up you may never feel you truly fit in. Second, childhood trauma restructures brain chemistry. Parents having physical fights, parents going to jail, being forced to lie to protect you family, puts children in a mode to always be on alert. These traumas can be overcome, but it takes a huge support system that can be hard to find. These struggles may also be life-long. Third, our current court systems don't honor the non-nuclear family model. Older siblings, aunts/uncles, and grandparents are so important in a child's life and states that don't allow relatives to foster family really need to rethink those policies. Fourth, we need church and educational systems to start stressing the importance of taking responsibility for our choices. Stop blaming the government for every. Last. thing. 
 This is truly remarkable memoir. Vance's words embody how he has learned to take responsibility, and how he struggles to make a better world for his kin. I look forward to seeing more from him.