S7 Ep. 49: Alissa Quart on J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy and the Dangerous Lie of American Bootstrap Narratives

Nonfiction writer Alissa Quart joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss how the American obsession with “bootstrap narratives” led to the publishing industry championing Hillbilly Elegy, the bestselling and problematic memoir by J.D. Vance, who was subsequently elected to the Senate and is now the Republican vice presidential nominee. Quart talks about Vance’s failure to credit those who have contributed to his success and reflects on both the fetishization of poverty and the importance of authentic representation. She also explains the long tradition of self-made man narratives and their underlying queer romantic elements, and compares Vance’s work to that of writers like Laura Ingalls Wilder and Horatio Alger. She critiques Vance’s recent remarks about childless and professional women and suggests the need for a more nuanced and expansive understanding of community. Quart talks about the nonprofit she leads, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and reads from her book, Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Alissa Quart

• Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream
• Thoughts and Prayers
• Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America
• Monetized
• Republic of Outsiders: The Power of Amateurs, Dreamers, and Rebels
• Economic Hardship Reporting Project
• "JD Vance is the Toxic Byproduct of America’s Obsession with Bootstrap Narratives" | Literary Hub

Others:

• Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Horatio Alger
• Barbara Ehrenreich
• Dorothy Allison
• Elizabeth Catte
• Alex Miller
• Bobbi Dempsey
• Ann Larson
• Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 32: “The East Palestine Train Derailment and Your Health: Kerri Arsenault on the Pervasive and Ongoing Risks of Dioxin”
• “‘Dangerous and un-American’: new recording of JD Vance’s dark vision of women and immigration” by Jason Wilson | The Guardian
• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
• Going for Broke with Ray Suarez | The Nation
• Going for Broke | NPR

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