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zakisreadingbooks's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
This was not quite the conservative manifesto I thought it might be, but that is a good thing. Vance’s autobiography is thoughtful, dark, and well informed. He articulates a compelling, nuanced, argument for the decline of white working class America, beyond (but still including) the manufacturing decline across the rust belt.
It is perhaps the quality and deep care of Vance’s research and prose that make his blatant sell out to Trumpism all the more depressing. In many ways he has leveraged the trauma of the communities he rose from, in full knowledge he and Trump’s dogma will not come close to solving the issues he articulates in this text.
It is perhaps the quality and deep care of Vance’s research and prose that make his blatant sell out to Trumpism all the more depressing. In many ways he has leveraged the trauma of the communities he rose from, in full knowledge he and Trump’s dogma will not come close to solving the issues he articulates in this text.
woodruffk4's review against another edition
dark
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Lots of red flags excusing violence as loyalty to family. Who kills other people’s dogs because they’re annoyed? Who threatens store clerks with death when their kids misbehave? Who douses someone in gasoline and lights a match? Who kidnaps their child and tries to kill them?—His family apparently. All out of intense love? You can’t nonchalantly brush aside this kind of behavior saying that’s just what people do. “Yes my parents fought intensely but so did everyone else’s.” 👀 Did they? Like this?
Not bad for a memoir though. Impressive what he’s done with his life having an ACE score of 6. Got to admit I’m a little concerned for his wife when at the end he says he hasn’t learned to control himself but she has learned to manage him. 👀 What does that mean? Also he loses his temper with his dog and “throttles him?” 🚩
Guess I’m just left with questions of how much a difficult background impacts a person despite their resilience. Appreciated praise of Marine Corps for being a catalyst for new lifestyle and turning to libraries for information.
hannahjwarren's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
aylei123's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
The last few chapters fall off so badly. Made me mad but he did have some insightful stuff to say.
elloryjane's review against another edition
3.0
JD !! Re read your own damn fucking book !!!! Make your running mate read it too !!!!! “Here is where the rhetoric of modern conservatives (and I say this as one of them) fails to meet the real challenges of their biggest constituents. Instead of encouraging engagement, conservatives increasingly foment the kind of detachment that has sapped the ambition of so many of my peers. […] What separates the successful from the unsuccessful are the expectations that they had for their own lives. Yet the message of the right is increasingly: It’s not your fault that you’re a loser; it’s the government’s fault.”
michaelpdonley's review against another edition
4.0
I'd expected it to be more of a social commentary than an autobiography, but it certainly was insightful. The cycle of poverty, drug abuse and the revolving doors of family (especially fathers) is so insidious and difficult to break through. That the author survived and become a Yale Law graduate and author feels like a miracle.