Hillbilly Elegy

than anything else. Almost all of the
letters I sent home asked her to “kiss the
babies and tell them that I love them.”
Cut off for the first time from home
and family, I learned a lot about myself
and my culture. Contrary to conventional
wisdom, the military is not a landing
spot for low-income kids with no other
options. The sixty-nine members of my
boot camp platoon included black,
white, and Hispanic kids; rich kids from
upstate New York and poor kids from
West Virginia; Catholics, Jews,
Protestants, and even a few atheists.
I was naturally drawn to those like
me. “The person I talk to most,” I wrote
to my family in my first letter home, “is