Hillbilly Elegy

I dunno man. I was lukewarm on it, but I thought quite a lot of the book was, implicitly or not, hand-wringing and sighing over the flaws and failures of his culture. I can't believe you could read it and not pick up on that. Maybe it's not particularly insightful or nuanced introspection, but the book is like 75% introspection.

I have to read this for my American History class
the class is so fucking shit, literally the only thing we talked about during reconstruction was the KKK and black injustice, which is fine and important but that was the sole thing we focused on for two weeks, and now we're moving into the early 20th century and the only thing we're talking about is women's rights in the U.S. which again, is important, but it shouldn't be the only fucking thing we're taught during this time period. It feels like I'm in an SJW class.
sorry for the rant, I'm kind of excited to read this, as I haven't read anything like it before.

It was all surface level stuff though: 'My parents would make crazy scenes and behave incredibly selfishly, and never admit a problem or ask for help. I guess that impacted me, and I should be willing to ask others for their input and help when I need it.' No shit, Sherlock.

The parts where he's trying to say his mom and her third (?) husband were lower class/impoverished even when they were making six figures also strains credulity a bit.

Like I said, for the most part I agree with the guy, but I didn't find his story particularly compelling, and his writing on a basic mechanical level leaves a ton to be desired.

It's actually garbage. Author is a self-indulgent prick, a bourgeois piece of shit that, like so many others of his class, wants to siphon vitality from an impoverished group (in this case, Appalachian Scots-Irish) by identifying with them -to a degree- but ultimately just wants to snub their noses at them. He doesn't know and doesn't care about the history of the region or people but thinks being a marine makes him a fucking genius (literally tries to argue that Scots-Irish are a unique ethnic group because they say "mawmaw/pawpaw," ignoring that this is just a universal thing among Southerners).

This book is literally made for simples like yourself.

>No shit, Sherlock.

Americans live in a country of brainwashed retards for which this is not obvious and those of them smart enough to pick up a book still need that kind of shit spoonfed to them.

The only reason to read this book is to figure that out and then figure out how to actually reach these people through their ideological indoctrination and get them to vote for a democrat

Posts like this make me grateful that the electoral college exists.

I bet you unironically complain about people "voting against their own self-interest"

I'm usually a calm and collected person but reading this made me want to beat the shit out of you.

I've been meaning to read it ever since I saw a socialist website refer to it as "right wing propaganda." They really hated it so it must be worth a read.

Please suggest these better books. I'm not being sarcastic; I want to read books like this.

Can't handle those tough facts?