Interest in Sen. JD Vance’s 2016 book, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” surged online this week after Vance, R-Ohio, was named as former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate.
The book rose to No. 1 on Amazon.com on Monday night and drew an influx of polarized reviews. It was previously No. 220. By Tuesday, which was Amazon Prime Day, the book had maintained a top slot on the bestseller list.
The Oscar-nominated film adaptation of the book, directed by Ron Howard, also climbed the Netflix charts Tuesday, appearing at No. 6 on the list of Top 10 movies nationwide. Released in 2020, the movie stars Amy Adams as Vance’s mother, Beverly Vance, and Glenn Close as his grandmother.
Representatives for Amazon and Netflix did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The memoir follows Vance’s impoverished upbringing, marked by his mother’s struggles with addiction. It chronicles his journey to the Marines and Yale Law School.
Upon its initial publication by HarperCollins, the memoir faced polarized reviews from critics.
The American Conservative named “Hillbilly Elegy” the “most important book of 2016,” praising it as “an extraordinary testimony to the brokenness of the white working class, but also its strengths.”
In a 2017 speech, then-Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin called “Hillbilly Elegy” a “thought-provoking book that needs to be read by people who care about Kentucky.”
However, some residents of Appalachia, which spans 13 states from Mississippi to New York, took issue with Vance’s representation of the region and its inhabitants, who are depicted in the book.
“J.D. Vance should not be held up as a representative of Appalachia or working class people, as his book … displayed a contempt for both groups,” Kentucky author Silas House told public radio station WUKY of Lexington, Kentucky.
The discourse surrounding the book has resurfaced as Vance was tapped as the Republican vice presidential nominee.
Vance, a onetime critic of Trump, was elected to the Senate in 2022 after an endorsement from Trump.
In selecting him as his running mate, Trump cited Vance’s success as a bestselling author, saying the memoir “championed the hardworking men and women of our Country” and highlighting the “American Workers” of Vance’s native Ohio that were its subject.
Online, several new reviews of the book surfaced after Trump’s announcement. Some mentioned Vance’s vice presidential candidacy as the impetus behind their purchases.
Some readers noticed that Goodreads, a book cataloguing platform owned by Amazon, temporarily restricted ratings on “Hillbilly Elegy,” citing “unusual behavior” on its landing page.
In response to a request for comment, Goodreads directed NBC News to a policy introduced in October to “protect the authenticity of ratings and reviews on Goodreads.”
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