I read “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” by J. D. Vance because it’s been talked about on the radio and in many of the magazines I read. It’s also very local, describing people who live within a 100-mile radius of me. I felt I owed it to the community to read it and it might explain the politics of Ohio in the last Presidential election.

It’s hard for me to put a finger on how I feel about the book.

I struggled to get through the first 50 pages and then put it down. I came back to it and started in again on Chapter 11 when Vance began as a student at Ohio State. He’s lucky, as he says over and over again, to climb out of his home culture. Something rankles, however.

Maybe it’s the presumption as I read through the words that a hard home life belongs uniquely to the poor, white culture of Appalachia. Maybe it’s the way he defines Appalachia. I’ve lived and worked in rural poverty in Maine and that, to me, is as Appalachian as it gets even without a Kentucky twang.

Maybe it’s page 226. It’s about the only time in his entire book he refers to any research literature and there he talks about ACES or “adverse childhood experiences.” He lists the possibilities:

• Being sworn at, insulted or humiliated by parents
• Being pushed, grabbed or having something thrown at you
• Feeling that your family didn’t support each other
• Having parents who were separated or divorced
• Living with an alcoholic or a drug user
• Living with someone who was depressed or attempted suicide
• Watching a loved one be physically abused

Two things strike me here. My score on this scale is worse than his score, and my family is not from Kentucky. There are worse things that happen in childhood than appear on this list. Vance tries to say at the end of the book, that what goes wrong here can be fixed, mostly by caring adults.

I read in the Columbus Dispatch last week that Vance is moving to Columbus. For all I know, he may end up living in my neighborhood. I’m not sure what he intends to do with his Yale law degree here, but I hope if he becomes active in the community, he will visit with some of our faculty in EHE.

Our faculty, many of whom are experts in the fields Vance has written about, would be happy to share their insight on the problems faced by those living in poverty.