Hillbilly Elegy

parents sought a better life. She’d gotten
involved with a couple of men, each of
whom had left her with a child but no
support. She was nice, and so were her
kids. But the drugs and the late-night
fighting revealed troubles that too many
hillbilly transplants knew too well.
Confronted with such a realization of her
own family’s struggle, Mamaw grew
frustrated and angry.
From that anger sprang Bonnie Vance
the social policy expert: “She’s a lazy
whore, but she wouldn’t be if she was
forced to get a job”; “I hate those fuckers
for giving these people the money to
move into our neighborhood.” She’d rant
against the people we’d see in the