Re: SF writers in the work force JD Vance.

Titus G wrote:

On 31/10/24 06:44, William Hyde wrote:
snip

Vance was born to money, but the money vanished due to divorce and
prohibition. So he dropped out of school and took all kinds of tough
jobs from his mid-teens until he began to write.
>
A common theme in his books is that of a protagonist who starts life
comfortably, experiences disaster, and climbs his way back.  Vance
lived it.

 I think that JD, now VP, Vance has written only one book, Hill Billy
Elegy, which tells of his own life before his association with
billionaire Trump supporter Peter Thiel. It is an interesting read and I
recommend it: 3 stars.
His mother was an alcoholic and opioid dependent prostitute when not
married. He had too many stepfathers to count, some of which married his
mother but never for long. He was saved by his grandmother, who had
shifted from some hill billy state, (I don't remember which), to escape
poverty to work in a steel factory in Ohio where his grandparents became
financially comfortable but not rich. It was his once hill billy
grandmother who financed his education. After graduating from high
school, he had a cushy job as an unarmed public relations liar for the
US army in Iraq before completing Arts and Law degrees.
He had no male role models growing up and seems to have based his
behaviour imitating strong personalities beginning with his grandmother,
continuing with a best friend from high school, the army. his law
professor, Peter Thiel, (who spent $15 million on Vance's senate
election campaign), and now Donald Trump.
There are some strange anomalies in his book. For example, I don't
recall him mentioning any non-white people though he is now married to
an Indian woman. In the book, he blamed poverty on laziness and cultural
backwardness and not on economic inequality due to the shrinking steel
industry in his hometown. Now as a Trump echo chamber, he blames poverty
because the salt of the earth have been ignored by the (Democrat?)
political elite. He is also now associated with people and organisations
funded by the Jewish Sackler brothers who are largely responsible for
opioid availability through the Purdue Company.
A better book is Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver which is about
similar people, a USA version of David Copperfield.

I really did like this book, devouring the first 200 pages at a sitting.
Part of the fun is getting the David Copperfield references, part was recalling the stories of people I knew from the area (richer people, admittedly but from one I got the lovely phrase "indoor hog weather" to describe a cold snap). It stands on its own without that, however.
Jo Nesbo has written a novel featuring MacBeth as a cop in some depressed northern city, with Duncan (briefly, anyway) and the rest in the cast. Didn't work for me, but it might for others.
I have some admiration for anyone who's written and published a book, even JDV. It takes me forever to write a ten page paper, and I don't have to think about characterization or imagery. (After his first play was accepted Somerset Maugham looked at a sunset and thought "Thank God I'll never have to describe another one of those!" as he was firmly resolved never to write another novel).
But then Mussolini also wrote a novel, which Anthony Burgess has Kenneth Toomey call "better than any of mine".  So a bit of admiration and political support are not the same thing.
William Hyde