These books shed light on the plight of America’s working poor, and how little it seems to change, no matter who is in power
Frances McDorman in the Oscar-winning Nomadland, based on Jessica Bruder’s non-fiction book about American ‘nomads’ travelling the US in search of work
Until two weekends ago, I hadn’t heard the name JD Vance in years. Suddenly, he was being mentioned as a possible candidate for the Republican vice-presidential nomination, and in what felt like a heartbeat he was on stage in Milwaukee, thousands of people wearing squares of paper stuck to the side of their heads were cheering, and balloons were falling from the ceiling. Yet another in the rapidly expanding category of “sentences that would have made no sense a month ago”.
I had no idea that Vance had entered politics; the only reason I had ever heard his name was because I had read his book Hillbilly Elegy when it came out in 2016. It was his story of growing up working poor in rust-belt Ohio in an extremely dysfunctional family and looking back at “his people” and “their problems” from his then point of view as a Yale graduate and investment manager. I’ve searched online and I didn’t mention it anywhere so that’s usually a sign that a book I’ve read falls between “meh” and “definitely not”.
