With frank honesty, J.D. Vance, author of the best-selling book "Hillbilly Elegy," spoke Wednesday in the student union at Bowling Green State University about his life growing up in Appalachia and the systemic problems stemming from poverty, educational inequalities and drug abuse.
Persistence, resilience and grit are the Common Experience themes at BGSU this year and Vance's memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" is the year's Common Read book, reflecting those concepts. The student union was filled with a capacity crowd of over a thousand.
Having written the book as a 31-year-old, Vance's life has been packed with experiences that make him wish at times he had "stopped to smell the daisies." The contrasts between his Yale Law School education and his youth, growing up on the poor side of rust belt Middletown, Ohio, are stark. Out of high school he spent four years in the Marines then went directly to college at Ohio State. After law school he worked in the Senate and moved on to the business world. The picture Vance paints of life in his hometown is tough, with characters and stories that are likable and loving but sometimes violent, even while trying to do good.
In her introduction, BGSU President Mary Ellen Mazey said, "As you read the book, it makes you want to laugh and cry."
At Yale, Vance said, "I felt, for the first time, like my spaceship had crash-landed and I had gotten out and everyone else was there hiking. There was an entire hidden way of doing things."
That led him to research two basic problems. The first was upward mobility, as defined by being able to do better than your parents, while the second was the myth of the American dream that through hard work and good choices, you will become successful.
"Red or white? ... Chardonnay or sauvignon blanc?" It was during a cocktail reception at law school when Vance didn't know how to respond to the waitress' choice question.
Vance said, "I thought she was screwing with me."
The story about the universal feeling of dread when on the spot, was also referenced by journalist and fellow Middletown native Clarence Page, when his talk touched on "Hillbilly Elegy" at BGSU in October.
Vance went on to talk about other basics, like how and when to exchange business cards, which he did not learn in his poor, blue-collar upbringing. Those illustrations of the "little things" that are perpetual barriers to upward mobility, he considers fundamental questions in his book.
If you're a poor kid growing up in Cincinnati, "you're likely to stay trapped," Vance said.
Thinking he had escaped many of the barriers to his upward mobility, he researched "closing the knowledge gap." He realized that sociologists had a name for the more basic issues that were actually holding him back, in the form of Adverse Childhood Experiences. On that scale of neglect and other tough experiences he scored a 7, when kids with an ACE score of 3 or more likely to struggle with chronic physical and mental health issues.
"There are deep cultural issues that are tough to overcome," Vance said. The author talked briefly about possible solutions to aiding children trapped at the bottom of society, emphasizing that he believes solutions will not come from government policy but from private world of nonprofits and individuals.
During follow-up questions from the audience, he also spoke about the opioid crisis and the ways it is affecting families and the workforce, recognizing that there are large sections of the population that have dropped out of the labor force, sometimes for 10 years or more, whose drug issues may prevent them from getting a job. He also spoke of the economic hardships felt by grandparents who are raising their grandchildren, because the parents are not around for months at a time.
Books in hand, more than 200 lined up to have Vance sign their copies.
Audience members appreciated different aspects of his wide ranging talk.
Arunan Nadarajah, a University of Toledo professor of bioengineering, mentioned the political side of Vance's talk. "We have sorted ourselves out. We don't meet people from the other side."
Meanwhile, BGSU Political Science Professor Melissa Miller said, "Who wouldn't want to have a beer with Mamaw? 'Hillbilly Elegy' is tough, compelling, with a wide range of issues with political implications. Even the book's critics are still talking about it."
