Left for Dead

First time I picked up Hillbilly Elegy back in 2017, I had to look up the word elegy in the dictionary. Had no clue what it meant. Where I come from, no one ever used the term.

Webster’s says an elegy is a lament for the dead, tracing its meaning to a Greek word for a song of mourning.

J.D. Vance’s bestselling book is about the ways of Appalachia. The title implies the region and those who call it home are as good as dead. Not that Vance is in a position to know. He is not from there.

I’ve visited Appalachia on more than one occasion, and it made deep impressions on me. But that’s all they were; visits, impressions. Vance has had the same; visits, impressions. He’s from an Ohio suburb, not Appalachia. He grew up between Cincinnati and Dayton, got good grades, took golf lessons, was offered a nearly free ride at Yale, visited his grandparents in Kentucky when school was out for the summer.

In his mind, the glimpses into Appalachian life he got during those childhood visits qualify him to d…