Summary

J.D. Vance begins by stating that he finds the existence of his own book strange, because he might be considered too young to write a memoir and has not done anything exceptional.

Vance talks about graduating from Yale Law School, which is as a significant achievement because he comes from a family in a poor former industrial town in Ohio. He mentions one of his parents struggling with addiction and being raised by his grandparents. He explains that, according to statistics, children like him often grow up to become adults who struggle.

He recounts how he was on the path to a grim future until he was rescued by people who loved him and went on to become an Ivy League graduate with a good job. He argues that his book is a story about how he got to experience upward social mobility, and what this feels like for p...