Hillbilly Elegy

the meat of her hand, directly on my
cheek. “That didn’t feel so bad, did it?”
And the answer was no. Getting hit in
the face wasn’t nearly as terrible as I’d
imagined. This was one of her most
important rules of fighting: Unless
someone really knows how to hit, a
punch in the face is no big deal. Better to
take a blow to the face than to miss an
opportunity to deliver your own. Her
second tip was to stand sideways, with
your left shoulder facing your opponent
and your hands raised because “you’re a
much smaller target that way.” Her third
rule was to punch with your whole body,
especially your hips. Very few people,
Mamaw told me, appreciate how