New Bestsellers Shine Light on Issues of Class and Race

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance. Call it good timing or masterful marketing, but this combination memoir and sociological study has benefited greatly from Donald Trump's White House run. Author Vance, a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, offers a probing look at the struggles of America's white working class through his own story of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town. That perspective, honed by a chaotic family history with roots in the dirt poor Appalachia region of Kentucky, has made him popular with media trying to understand Trump's appeal with lower middle class and poor whites. And Vance has proved to be an able and thoughtful commentator, which has helped make Hillbilly Elegy an independent bookstore bestseller. The Vance family story began with hope in postwar America, when J.D.'s grandparents moved north from Kentucky to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family and lay the groundwork for generational upward mobility, culminating in their grandson's graduation from Yale Law. But there is more to this family saga, and Vance writes candidly of how his grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother struggled with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the Appalachian legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma. It's a timely, perceptive book that gives readers a personal view of a demographic whose struggles are an important piece of this year's presidential race. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. It's not to say Whitehead's new novel wouldn't be doing well anyway; it's had good reviews and he's is an established and well-regarded writer. His novel, John Henry Days, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2002, and he has been awarded both a MacArthur 'Genius' Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. It's just that we'll never really know how the book would do on its own because The Underground Railroad was annointed this month as The B ook To Read by the still-influential Oprah Winfrey. She made it a 2016  Oprah Book Club selection, which set off a publicity blitz that any new title would covet. The good news is that Whitehead's latest, which took him 16 years to bring to fruition, has been well received by many more than just Oprah. The chronicle of a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South has been praised in The New York Times and Washington Post, to name two, and on NPR. One of the novel's more interesting devices is the underground railroad itself, which here is not a metaphor but a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels built and dug by slaves and running beneath the Southern soil. His heroine, Cora, uses the system on her harrowing journey from state to state, never certain what awaits her at each station. Whitehead pulls no punches in describing the terrors faced by slaves and the horrific treatment they were subjected to, weaving them into his powerful narrative and reminding us what Cora faces if her efforts fail.    Intriguing Life Stories of Two Influential Women Now in Paperback My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem. The iconic feminist leader delivers a candid account of how a life filled with traveling has motivated, informed, and influenced her. This is a memoir told through that lens, as Steinem writes about how her lifelong travels have given her exposure to  people whose voices and ideas would inspire change and revolution. The accounts are insightful and entertaining and prove that, along with her myriad other abilities, she is a great listener. Writes pretty good, too. M Train by Patti Smith. This is a follow-up to Smith's award-winning Just Kids, about her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and their bohemian lives in New York City. M Train is also autobiographical, but it is written by an older, more reflective Smith. Although episodes from her life are certainly part of the book, the focus is more on her odyssey as an artist and is told through a series of "stations" - cafes and haunts she has inhabited and worked in around the world. As she looks back on her life with prose that shifts between dreams and reality, Smith also provides reflections on the writer's craft and on artistic creation. Just as it is difficult to pigeonhole Smith - a writer, lyricist, poet, performer, and visual artist - so is it hard to simply describe this latest creative burst. Fans should be pleased regardless, and others may be interested in this unconventional memoir of a unique creative talent.