How They Face East Compares To Hillbilly Elegy

They Face East by Trae Zipperer is most similar to Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance. The two respective memoir authors, Zipperer and Vance, were each raised within dysfunctional households where resources were limited and a parent suffered from substance abuse. Redneck Trae Zipperer had an alcoholic father while hillbilly J. D. Vance's mother was addicted to drugs. Following high school Trae enlisted in the United States Navy and J.D. enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

Both military veterans attended state schools with Trae Zipperer graduating from The University of Central Florida and J. D. Vance graduation from The Ohio State University. Continuing on to Ivy League graduate schools, Trae chose Harvard Business School and J. D. chose Yale Law School. Venture capital was a common career path and the parallel lives of Trae Zipperer and J.D. Vance went so far as Trae testing the waters for the U.S. House of Representatives followed by Vance winning a seat in the U.S. Senate.

These memoirs of two representative American families, They Face East and Hillbilly Elegy, are told by blue collar boys turned military veterans who against all odds reached the Ivy League. Trae Zipperer remains faithful to his Protestant Southern heritage while Northerner J. D. Vance was confirmed a Catholic.