The author of the New York Times Bestseller “Hillbilly Elegy,” J.D. Vance, spoke at the University yesterday for its common read. “Hillbilly Elegy” is a memoir about Vance’s life in Appalachian Kentucky to Southwest Ohio all the way to Yale Law School. There is also a movie in the works, and will be directed by Ron Howard. Vance spoke about many aspects of the book and his life in Kentucky and Ohio. One thing he talked about was why he wrote the book.
“I wanted to write the book because, really, I found myself, when I was in my late 20s at Yale Law School, and for really the first time in my life I felt a bit like a cultural outsider… And, no matter who I encountered and wherever I had been up to that point in my life, and I had spent four years at Ohio State, I always felt like I belonged… I didn’t feel that way at Yale Law School… This sense of belonging and of doing things that had really been hidden mostly to the people who had grown up like I had. You know, I remember people were already…about the jobs they were going to be doing after they graduated from law school. They were confident that they expected to earn six-figure salaries when they graduated from high school, something that nobody really in my family or that I knew of, had ever earned. Then they would already be worried it wasn’t going to be enough. How could I possibly afford my five-figure daycare for my child not even yet born on a six-figure salary?”
Josh Tejkl, class of ’14, read the book, and said Vance’s experiences mirrored his.
“I think it was just a relatable situation and my background wasn’t as hectic as anything he describes, but I’m from a small town in Michigan, and I kind of can relate to that,” Tejkl said. “Not a lot of my family went to college, and then kind of being that first generation too, and going through those similar situations.”
Hunter Traugh, a freshman sports management major, said he learned some things from “Hillbill Elegy.”
Traugh said, “I am definitely spoiled. I know that some people down in Kentucky don’t have what I have. This book made me learn that stuff.”
Vance’s speech talked some about his book, but much more about his process of writing the book, and what he took from the experiences.
The three aspects that the University wanted to inspire in the common read challenge were perseverance, resistance and grit — and Vance’s story had all of them.
