Hillbilly Elegy

mother, sometimes both. At especially
stressful times, we’ll hit and punch each
other, all in front of the rest of the family,
including young children; much of the
time, the neighbors hear what’s
happening. A bad day is when the
neighbors call the police to stop the
drama. Our kids go to foster care but
never stay for long. We apologize to our
kids. The kids believe we’re really
sorry, and we are. But then we act just as
mean a few days later.
We don’t study as children, and we
don’t make our kids study when we’re
parents. Our kids perform poorly in
school. We might get angry with them,
but we never give them the tools—like