I am giving this novel a 3 star review.
The writing was great but nothing really gripping.
This is a memoir about a guy who lived in a white working class family who was raised in Ohio. His family moved from Kentucky to Ohio for work. J.D. finds a way to escape the little town in Ohio and his family to go to the military and then to Yale for Law school. But his family from his mom, sister, aunt, grandma all are left behind to survive in a small town with their “hillbilly’ ways. This memoir touches on abuse, substance abuse, and poverty in his family. At times, the memoir is funny and then other times very serious.
It is hard to rate a book on someone’s life. But there was no story in this that I found captivating. This book will fade away in my memory faster than I read it. There was nothing profound that I took from this book. I found the writing to be great, but the substance of the novel was lacking.