What makes J.D. Vance tick?

Most Americans, whether or not they’ve read J.D. Vance’s 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, have some idea of his remarkable journey from poverty in Middletown, Ohio, to the vice presidency of the United States. In some ways it’s the Horatio Alger tale to beat all Horatio Alger tales. A gambler who knew James David Hamel (as he was then known) as a child would have given million to one odds against his attending Yale Law School, making a ton of money in tech investing, and then becoming a United States senator and vice president of the United States. But that’s exactly what he went on to do—and he managed to do it ahead of his 41st birthday.

Another thing he managed to do before age 41: publish two memoirs. His second, released last week, is called Communion, and traces Vance’s decision, as an adult, to be received into the Catholic Church.

In the days since, reviewers of the book have written essays shaped by their opinions of J.D. Vance and his politics. My aim in this review is different. I want to explain why Communion is an interesting, and even valuable, book quite independent of readers’ opinions of the vice president, and even apart from whether J.D. Vance is living up to the Christian principles he formally embraces.

Anyone who wants to live a life that matters—and in some sense, I suppose, we all do—must first try to figure out what matters and why.