Hillbilly Elegy, American Elegy: J.D. Vance's bestseller about the crisis of the working class

What is "American Elegy", a bestselling book in the US in 2016 that came back into the spotlight after Trump chose its author, James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman) as a candidate for the US vice-presidency? "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis" - that's the original title - is an autobiographical memoir that in some passages has the feel of an essay, in which the author traces the story of the Vance family, which began in post-war America, when J.D.'s grandparents, 'poor and in love', moved north from the Appalachian region of Kentucky to Ohio. Their hope was to escape the terrible poverty that characterised the Rust Belt, the region between the northern Appalachian Mountains and the Great Lakes, once the heart of US heavy industry.

The book, published in Italy by Garzanti, tells what it is like to grow up in Middletown, Ohio, in an impoverished middle-class family originally from Kentucky, which has certainly improved its starting situation but is apparently still hopeless. And in which a brilliant nephew, J. D. himself, despite the difficulties, manages to graduate from Yale Law School, achieving the classic goal that confirms successful upward generational mobility.

But if merit 'saves' the young protagonist, the family saga narrated in Hillbilly Elegy sets the scene for the - often dramatic - vicissitudes of his beloved grandmother (the generous Mamaw, a true lifeline in the adversities of the author's formative years, which drove him to attend Ohio State University and then Yale Law School), his violent father, his uncles, his sister and, above all, J.D.'s mother, a drug addict who collects husbands and lovers, and their daily struggle against abuse, alcoholism, poverty and trauma.

Vance's book takes an original and 'on-the-ground' look at the theme of personal, family and community responsibility in determining the course of one's existence. Is the hillbilly attitude towards life's events more or less influential than the difficult economic situation of Vance's countrymen? As a cashier in a grocery shop, the author records the fact that those on unemployment benefit can afford a mobile phone, which he, who does have a job, cannot. Another theme, the work ethic, and the absence of it, is exemplified by the story of a fellow citizen who takes leave after raging against working hours and attacking the Obameconomy on social media.

In this respect, the book sums up the author's critique of the US welfare state. Many of his fellow citizens described in 'American Elegy' depend on public assistance but spend their time trying to defraud the system, pursuing a lifestyle based on financial irresponsibility. For example, they use food stamps from the Food Stamp Program (a federal assistance programme that provides aid and support in the purchase of food for poor families) to buy soft drinks and then resell them for cash. A subterfuge thanks to which the State loses and the recipient gains a relative material well-being immediately 'invested' in luxury items (iPhones, plasma TVs) unattainable for the author, a working poor employed in the local grocery store.