Hillbilly Elegy

plagued me: Why didn’t our neighbor
leave that abusive man? Why did she
spend her money on drugs? Why
couldn’t she see that her behavior was
destroying her daughter? Why were all
of these things happening not just to our
neighbor but to my mom? It would be
years before I learned that no single
book, or expert, or field could fully
explain the problems of hillbillies in
modern America. Our elegy is a
sociological one, yes, but it is also about
psychology and community and culture
and faith.
During my junior year of high
school, our neighbor Pattie called her
landlord to report a leaky roof. The