The Clermont County Public Library is proud to present an evening with J.D. Vance, author of “Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.”

Vance will discuss his New York Times bestseller at 7 p.m. Friday, May 19, in Krueger Auditorium on the UC Clermont College campus, 4200 Clermont College Drive. Vance will sign copies of his book as time allows.

The event is free and no ticket is required, but space is limited to 400 seats.

Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio, served as a U.S. Marine and graduated from Yale Law School. The book jacket provides the following description: The book is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis – that of poor, white Americans. The Vance family story began with hope in post-war America. J.D.’s grandparents moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them.

They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker for success in achieving generational upward mobility.

But as the family saga plays out in the book, J.D.’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister and most of all his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty and trauma so characteristic of their part of America.

For more information, visit clermontlibrary.org. What will you discover?