Just before Christmas the previous year, Vance stood in a Walmart with a shopping list in hand to purchase gifts for a needy child. Because of his own experience, he was overly critical of all the suggestions. Pajamas were unnecessary. Learning aids seemed condescending. Finally, he decided to purchase a fake cell phone, clothes, and fire trucks.

Vance’s mother, like the parents of all the kids in his neighborhood, made an effort to provide a “nice” Christmas for her children—which meant spending more money than she had. She took their meager savings down to below zero as she desperately sought out the hot toys of each season. After becoming an adult, Vance realized that the wealthy don’t necessarily operate this way. Some buy only a few small presents for their children. Some of those children opt to be given no presents so that they can donate to other kids in need. Usha received books as Christmas gifts. The wealthy, Vance finds, didn’t necessarily define Christmas by the dollar value of gifts.

As an adult, Vance met Brian, a teenager who reminded him a great deal of himself at the same age. Unlike Vance, Brian did not have a Mamaw and Papaw. He did have a great heart, a mother with addictions, and a complicated relationship with his father. When he ate with Vance, he finished his meal and then looked nervously around the table. He finally revealed to Vance that he was still hungry and would appreciate a few more fries.

Shortly after this, Brian’s mother died. She had lost custody of him already, but Vance understood that Brian would have never lost hope in her. He would have never stopped loving her, even if he had been forced to lose contact with her in order to survive. Brian had experienced multiple childhood traumas, and soon he would be forced to navigate decisions about education and employment that even economically privileged children found difficult to navigate.

Brian’s hope rested with the hillbillies around him. Could Brian’s community empower him to take control of his own destiny? Could they provide him with a sense of Christian love and purpose?

Vance believes that hillbillies are the toughest people on earth. They defend the honor of their families in ways most could not imagine, such as taking an electric saw to a man’s back for disrespecting someone’s mother. But could they also be tough enough to help kids like Brian? Can they look in the mirror and admit their faults and the ways they harm their own children?

Hillbilly culture is not often supportive. Vance’s cousin Mike was forced to sell his mother’s house, which had been in the family for over a century, because he knew his neighbors would destroy it. Mamaw stopped purchasing bicycles for the grandchildren because they kept being stolen, even when locked up, from her front porch. Near the end of her life, Mamaw was harassed so much by an able-bodied neighbor who always showed up begging for cash that Mamaw quit answering her door completely.

Vance believes that America needs to make a space for the J.D.s and Brians of the world to find the support they need. And in order to do that, Vance says, hillbillies have to stop blaming US presidents and various companies for their problems and be willing to ask themselves what their personal role is in improving the situation.

Vance has always wondered whether Brian suffered from nightmares. As a kid, Vance dreamed that he was in a room in a large tree house with Mamaw and Lindsay, and then his mother...