Let me start with this: I just reread Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance and I get it.
Is it universally true? No. Are his sociological musings shaky? Absolutely. But his memoir of his family and himself, which is about 99% of the book, reads absolutely spot on. So if you are hoping for a slashing attack on that book, this is not it. [Note: I am not commenting on Vance becoming the "face" or "voice" of Appalachia in the conservative world, and do not endorse what little I had seen of his political and sociological pronouncements.]
I have theories about what he writes and about Appalachian, not because I have driven through it on occasion or read editorial commentary on it by writers flying in and out, but because that's my dad's family down there. I grew up with strong Appalachian roots. I still have ties to that place and culture—well, the culture of white Scots-Irish Appalachia, that is—because there is an African-American Appalachia, a non Scots-Irish white Appalachia, and increasingly as one author (who I will discuss shortly) pointed out, a Latinx Appalachia.
Barbara Kingsolver, with strong Appalachian ties both past and present, recently said in an interview with The New York Times that she could not get through Hillbilly Elegy. She pointed readers instead to Ronald Eller and Elizabeth Catte. Intrigued, I read both of them, then reread Hillbilly Elegy.
Ronald Eller was the longtime director of the Appalachian Center in Lexington and a retired professor of history at the University of Kentucky. His book, Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since 1945, is a well-written history of the region, He focuses on economics and politics: the exploitation of Appalachia through extractive economic policy, the deep-seated political graft, granting of favors, and worse in both parties.
Uneven Ground is a solid work. But his best sentence—the one that rings truest for me—happened right out of the gate:"We know Appalachia exists because because we need it to exist in order to define what we are not. It is the "other America" because the very idea of Appalachia convinces us of the righteousness of our own lives."
I started out of my seat when I read that line, immediately putting it into my current notebook of quotes. "[T]he very idea of Appalachia convinces us of the righteousness of our own lives." Thank you, Ronald Eller.
Catte wrote a slim work, What You Don't Know About Appalachia, in direct response to J. D. Vance, whom she would gladly dropkick without any further provocation. Much of her vitriol towards Vance is directed towards his post-Hillbilly Elegy talks and articles, all decidedly conservative, and about his plying his "poor white trash" persona enlightening the rest of us in the media, particularly talk radio. She particularly derides him for posing as and being appointed as an authority on "why Appalachia voted for Trump," which she thoroughly dissects by color, percentage of voters, and by comparing the 2016 primary results with the 2016 election results. She tells the reader up front that she is well-educated, liberal, and chose to move back to Appalachia (Tennessee) rather than live in Texas, which she accurately described as taking industrial pollution and exposure to toxins to a whole new level. She also deftly and convincingly gives a picture of Appalachia that is more, both historically and presently, than just a Scots-Irish enclave with quaint talk and customs, despite the mainstream dominant culture continuing to portray it that way. (We indeed need that portrayal of Appalachia to convince us of the righteousness of our "superior" way of life.)
What I most appreciated about Catte is that, along with flaying Vance, she tore into both the far conservative right commentators and what she would characterize as the liberal elitist commentators. (It is the word "elitist" that is most important in that phrase, incidentally.) Thank you, Ms. Catte. Thank you for pointing out the massive tone-deaf Hillary Clinton stumble in the West Virginia primary (long before her "deplorables" comment): "I don't want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on." Who did the best they could? As Catte correctly points out: how absolutely condescending and out of touch. No wonder Sanders buried Clinton in the primary. Nor does she spare Trump and his downright stupid comments and lack of policy about the coal industry. She would gladly dropkick him too.
Catte was a refreshing read.
And then I reread Hillbilly Elegy, keeping in mind what Catte pointed out about Vance. I don't agree with his prologue, when he does paint with a broad brush a picture of Appalachia that is all white, all Scots-Irish, all stereotyped. But his actual memoir? As I already said: spot on. I handed my copy to my brother Mark after Thanksgiving dinner and said, "Read this. I see our family all through this book." I'll be interested to hear his reaction.
So what about Appalachia? Back in 1975-1976, I applied for and was granted admission as a transfer student to Berea College, a no-tuition college in Kentucky with a primary service region of southern Appalachia. For several reasons, all of which seemed critical at the time, I did not attend. Even this many decades later, I wonder what my life trajectory would have been had I gone there. And I have written before about the strong ties I feel to my dad's side of the family. Dad and I still haven't made it down to Kentucky to revisit family sites, but with mom not at home anymore, that may be a real possibility.
I'm glad I read Catte and Eller. I'm glad I reread Vance and I still recommend it for the personal memoir.
Eller summed Appalachia up bluntly: "Moving to a culture of mutual responsibility will help us open up our civic processes to expand diversity, transparency, and participation. Only then can we confront the complex structural challenges of an extractive economy that has drained the region of its physical and human wealth and of an extractive political system that has benefited few at the expense of many."
Indeed.
