I haven't written here in a LONG time, but this was such a good book I had to share it.
This also crosses off a book from the Modern Mrs. Darcy 2019 Reading Challenge- a book I have been meaning to read! I had this book recommended to me a few months ago and just found it again. I read it in about 3 days.
J.D. is a boy who grew up in Middletown Ohio, and spent his summers in Jackson Kentucky. He comes from a long line of proud hillbillies, and spends a good amount of time talking about what that was like. He had a variety of father figures in his life, and his mother was a drug addicted nurse. He grew up with a family history of taking electric saws to people's backs over a disagreement, or the time his grandma's brother made a boy eat a pair of her underwear at gunpoint after he made an inappropriate comment about her. Arguments regularly turned to blows, and defending your mother's honor meant beating the other man to a pulp. J.D. didn't know anything besides this. One of the men his mother married (for about 6 months) nearly took him away from Middletown and the comparative stability of living on the same street as his grandparents, and he fought that. His grandparents were the ones who helped him succeed in high school. He got into Ohio State but realized he didn't know the first thing about being an adult. So he joined the Marines. When he got back from the Marines he went to Ohio State and set his mind on Yale Law school. NOBODY from his town went to an Ivy League. So when he got in it was a big deal. He got married, and now lives a totally different life from the one he was dealt.
There are 2 huge points to take away from this. 1) With the right support system, you can achieve anything. 2) Don't let yourself be a victim of your circumstances.
About point 1: J.D. was born into a poor town that was not safe and had low education expectations. The college rate was low, and Ivy League was unheard of. His Papaw and Mamaw thought that they failed his mother, since she turned out to be a drug addict that begged her kids for clean urine so she could keep working to buy more drugs. They decided to be the best possible parents they could for their grandchildren. His grandmother told him he was not allowed to hang out with his old druggie friends. She made sure he didn't accept just barely passing for himself. He was going to work HARD and make something of himself! He has an older sister, who married someone that was not "like them". This meant that he didn't scream and throw things when they got into an argument. He treated J.D.'s sister well, and gave her a stable home. Growing up in Appalachia is a different world from New Haven. He didn't know what sparkling water was. He didn't know how to network with the lawyers and law firms. But he found a support system at Yale that allowed him to navigate these new challenges, and now is a successful attorney.
About point 2: J.D. was part of a world that is totally foreign to me. Hillbillies (which is what they proudly called themselves) were staunchly Democrat until about Nixon's time. Then within a generation they went from totally Democrat to totally Republican. Nobody quite knows why. But nowadays, only about 6% of the country trusts the media to be truthful. People always had an excuse. When a coworker of J.D.'s who had a pregnant girlfriend was fired, he blamed the manager. He didn't blame the fact that he was hours late to work, and took multiple half-hour long bathroom breaks every day. When another acquaintance was fired, he blamed "Obama's economy", not the fact that he didn't want to come into work anymore. If people want to find something besides themselves to blame for everything that goes wrong, they can. Their support system has let them down yet again. The government is making them out to be a victim. They were born without the ability to be successful. EVERYTHING is pushing them back! But until you accept that you CAN change something the world will seemingly always be against you.
I didn't even do this book a little bit of justice, but I recommend it to everyone.
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