Hillbilly Elegy

with an unlimited supply of phlegm, and
he had no problem sharing that phlegm
with everyone, no matter the time or
occasion. He listened to Johnny Cash on
perpetual repeat and drove an old El
Camino—a car truck—everywhere he
went. In other words, Papaw wasn’t
ideal company for a beautiful seventeen-
year-old girl with an active social life.
Thus, she took advantage of him in the
same way that every young girl takes
advantage of a father: She loved and
admired him, she asked him for things
that he sometimes gave her, and she
didn’t pay him a lot of attention when
she was around her friends.
To this day, being able to “take