Hillbilly Elegy

suppose was their purpose. On the nights
when we sat in that giant hall with other
families—all of whom were either black
or Southern-accented whites like us—
we heard screaming and fighting,
children telling their parents that they
hated them, sobbing parents begging
forgiveness in one breath and then
blaming their families in the next. It was
there that I first heard Lindsay tell Mom
how she resented having to play the
caretaker in the wake of Papaw’s death
instead of grieving for him, how she
hated watching me grow attached to
some boyfriend of Mom’s only to see
him walk out on us. Perhaps it was the
setting, or perhaps it was the fact that