I don’t Vance is an idiot.
We can have a silly debate about whether he’s smart (I don’t think so, but definitions of intelligence blah blah blah).
But he’s not dumb. And he’s cleaver about what he’s trying to achieve. And driven.
But he’s like a really bad person who deserves bad things.
if he's not smart, I'll accept it--I'm going mostly by "people are saying" tbh.
did anyone actually read Hillbilly Elegy? curious as to whether there are indicators of his severe sliminess and ambition in it
I read it and no, not really.
The strange part of the book is that he lays bare how absolutely warped his grandparents and mother were and then was all, "yup, these people are the ones left behind," and people thought that he was being complimentary and exculpatory when he wasn't really either.
Interesting. Is it well written? I don't want to give him any money or anything but now I'm faintly curious.
I can well imagine his family was bent. dude went into politics instead of therapy. why do they always do that.
I will say it's certainly an interesting read if you want to capture a sense of the zeitgeist that got it on the bestseller list and the subject of book clubs and whatnot.
But yeah, check it out of the library if anything, don't give that slug a penny.
