Hillbilly Elegy

explained that if Mom lost her temper
again, Mamaw would shoot her in the
face. That night we stayed at Mamaw’s
house.
I’ll never forget Lindsay’s face as
she marched upstairs to bed. It wore the
pain of a defeat known by only a person
who experiences the highest high and the
lowest low in a matter of minutes. She
had been on the cusp of achieving a
childhood dream; now she was just
another teenage girl with a broken heart.
Mamaw turned to retire to her couch,
where she would watch Law & Order,
read the Bible, and fall asleep. I stood in
the narrow walkway that separated the
living room from the dining room and