“Hillbilly Elegy,” the contentious memoir that brought Ohio Senator J.D. Vance into the national spotlight, is experiencing a resurgence in sales following former President Donald Trump’s decision to select the venture capitalist as his running mate.
Vance’s 2016 memoir was ranked at No. 220 on Amazon’s bestseller list on Monday morning, but it shot to the top spot after Trump’s announcement, according to the Associated Press.
“Hillbilly Elegy” has surpassed 1.5 million copies sold so far, a figure that could see significant growth in the upcoming months.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Vance outsells Stephen King this year,” Allan Salkin, co-owner of the New Books Company, a podcast production entity focusing on book publishing, told the Wall Street Journal.
The book details Vance’s family history in Kentucky and Ohio while exploring cultural and economic changes that prompted some white working-class voters to shift from Democratic to Republican. Topics covered in “Hillbilly Elegy” include drug addiction, government assistance, and concepts of masculinity.
“I felt that if I wrote a very forthright, and at times painful, book, it would open people’s eyes to these very real problems,” Vance said in 2016. “Not as many people would pay attention if they thought I was just another academic spouting off, rather than someone who has personally experienced these issues.”
Initially praised by conservative media, partly due to his critique of the welfare state and the “cultural habits” he claimed kept rural whites in poverty, the memoir was later referenced by liberal outlets as a potential explanation for Trump’s 2016 victory.
In 2020, Ron Howard adapted “Hillbilly Elegy” into a film starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close. The movie received mixed reviews but earned two Oscar nominations: Best Supporting Actress for Close and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
Critics from the region have denounced Vance’s work, asserting that he relied too much on generalizations and that his upbringing in suburban Ohio didn’t accurately represent Appalachian life.
“‘Elegy’ is little more than a list of myths about welfare queens repackaged as a primer on the white working class. Vance’s central argument is that hillbillies themselves are to blame for their troubles,” Sarah Jones, a journalist from southwestern Virginia and eastern Tennessee, wrote in the New Republic in 2016.
“I look at my home and see a region abandoned by the government elected to serve it,” she continued. “Central Appalachia is a sea of distress. If you are born where I grew up, you have to travel hundreds of miles to find a prosperous America. How do you get off the dole when there’s not enough work to go around? Frequently, you don’t.”