Hillbilly Elegy

had ever felt.
My father, Don Bowman, was
Mom’s second husband. Mom and Dad
married in 1983 and split up around the
time I started walking. Mom remarried a
couple years after the divorce. Dad gave
me up for adoption when I was six. After
the adoption, he became kind of a
phantom for the next six years. I had few
memories of life with him. I knew that he
loved Kentucky, its beautiful mountains,
and its rolling green horse country. He
drank RC Cola and had a clear Southern
accent. He drank, but he stopped after he
converted to Pentecostal Christianity. I
always felt loved when I spent time with
him, which was why I found it so