Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
Published 2016 · 75,000 words · about 5 hours at an average pace · Memoir & Autobiography, Nonfiction, Politics & Society
How hard is Hillbilly Elegy to read?
Hillbilly Elegy scores 16 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 22 out of 100
- Everyday vocabulary. Very accessible.
- Sentence structure: 22 out of 100
- Abstraction: 22 out of 100
- Concrete personal narrative with sociological framing.
- Information density: 38 out of 100
- Personal narrative with social commentary.
- Narrative indirection: 80 out of 100
- Chronological memoir.
- Symbolic density: 12 out of 100
- Appalachia as symbol of working-class crisis.
- Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
- Self-aware about his escape from poverty.
- Resolution withholding: 100 out of 100
- Vance's success provides personal closure.
- Structural complexity: 18 out of 100
- Simple chronological memoir.
How Hillbilly Elegy is regarded
Hillbilly Elegy holds a literary regard score of 33 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.