Hillbilly Elegy

Mom’s; both of them cared for me and
treated me like a son. It was my first real
introduction to the competing emotional
demands of Middletown in a post-
Mamaw world: I didn’t want to hurt
Mom’s feelings, but the past had created
rifts that would likely never go away. I
never confronted these demands head-
on. I never explained to Mom that no
matter how nice and caring she was at
any given time—and while I had mono,
she couldn’t have been a better mother—
I just felt uncomfortable around her. To
sleep in her house meant talking to
husband number five, a kind man but a
stranger who would never be anything to
me but the future ex–Mr. Mom. It meant