'Hillbilly Elegy' release: What to know before watching the film adaptation of the book?

Recently released drama film Hillbilly Elegy has created quite a stir amongst viewers while some have gone all out to praise the film, many thought otherwise. The premise of the film is based on the modern take of the American Dream through three generations of the Vances, an Appalachian family. Directed by Ron Howard, the movie is based on the 2016 memoir of the same name by JD Vance. The movie stars an ensemble cast of Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Gabriel Basso and more. Here’s everything that you must know about Hillbilly Elegy before watching the film.

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JD Vance’s life

The memoir and the film largely focus on the tumultuous life of JD’s relationship with his troubled mother and her ongoing addiction to heroin. Hillbilly Elegy depicts how JD grew up in a poor family in Ohio and went on to become a Yale Law student. However, after a family emergency, he is drawn back to his Appalachian hometown wherein he reflects on his family’s history and contemplates about his future. For the most part, the film covers almost all the big events that Vance had described in his memoir.

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The book’s huge debut

When Hillbilly Elegy debuted in the summer of 2016, Vance did not expect that it would be successful. The book’s publisher HarperCollins, ran an initial 10,000 copies. However, Hillbilly Elegy was further popularised with an interview published by The American Conservation. Post which, such was its success that the volume of requests briefly disabled The American Conservative website. The New York Times reported that Hillbilly Elegy gained a position in the top 10 Amazon bestsellers list.

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Controversy faced by the author

JD Vance also had to face backlash by many journalists and historians for generalising too much from his personal upbringing in the Ohio Suburban. The New Republic journalist Sarah Jones taunted Vance for being the ‘false prophet of Blue America’. She also added that his memoir is a ‘flawed guide to the world’ as the book describes ‘a list of myths about welfare queens repackaged as a primer on the white working-class’.

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