Mememaw & I
Or—Big Boy, Big Problems: “This might be normal in your family, but it’s not right.” Actual content aside, “ Hillbilly Elegy ” is a hell of a title, and I’ve had it stuck in my head ever since I first heard it. (The subtitle, “ A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis ,” is pure, dry, unwieldy conservative-speak, and I’m going to pretend it doesn’t exist.) You’ve got the unlikely pairing of “hillbilly” with the big-boy poetic noun “elegy”; the rhyme, I honestly could do without (it tickles my brain in an annoying way), but the consonance with the “L” sound is a real treat for how… atypical it is. I find it quite the evocative title overall and think that it’s unfortunate it sits atop THIS: alleged couch-humper, soon-to-be Vice President, and confirmed Online weirdo JD Vance’s 2016 memoir, which I will almost certainly never read, and Ron Howard’s 2020 film adaptation, which I only finally watched this past summer out of morbid curiosity. The word that now comes to mind, re. t...