September Book Group

Monday, September 17, 11:15 a.m.–1:30 p.m., Anna Paulson Room

Hillbilly Elegy, written by J.D. Vance, is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. But as the saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that Vance’s family struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life.

A deeply moving memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.
Join us, and bring your lunch!