Hillbilly Elegy

and demanded a divorce. Mom had sped
off in her brand-new minivan and
intentionally crashed it into a telephone
pole. That’s what she said, at least.
Mamaw had her own theory: that Mom
had tried to detract attention from her
cheating and financial problems. As
Mamaw said, “Who tries to kill
themselves by crashing a fucking car? If
she wanted to kill herself, I’ve got plenty
of guns.”
Lindsay and I largely bought
Mamaw’s view of things, and we felt
relief more than anything—that Mom
hadn’t really hurt herself, and that
Mom’s attempted suicide would be the
end of our Preble County experiment.