Sullivan J Brady’s Reviews > Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis > Status Update

ACE - adverse childhood experience

“What turned me into an alien was my optimism”

The thing id like to change most about the white working class is “the feeling that our choices don’t matter” the marines excised that feeling like a surgeon does a tumor.

I’m sure that a sociologist and a psychologist, sitting in a room together could explain why I lost interest in drugs, why my grades improved, why I aced the SAT and why I found a couple of teachers who inspired me to love learning. But what I remember most of all is that I was happy - I no longer feared the school bell at the end of the day, I knew where I’d be living… mamaws home gave me a safe place