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From the bestselling editors of The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup comes an American road trip in book form: original writing on all 50 states by 50 of our finest novelists, journalists, and essayists
Inspired by the example of the legendary WPA American Guide series of the 1930s and '40s, now 50 of our foremost writers have produced original pieces of reportage and memoir that capture the 50 states in our time, creating a fresh portrait of America as it lives and breathes today.
At turns poignant and funny, and always insightful, these 50 writers tell us something lasting and revealing about each state through personal memory or contemporary reporting that captures the essential qualities that make each state its own. With an array of revealing facts and figures comparing the 50 states in a range of surprising measures (toothlessness, military enlistment, suicide), State by State is more than an anthology: It is a classic American road movie in book form.
Review:
"In its personalized way, State by State is an antidote to the oversimplifying red state/blue state rubric....Odds are, reading State by State, that you'll fall for every state a little." Los Angeles Times
Review:
"The WPA state guides of the 1930s were intended to 'describe America to Americans' and inspired this wonderful collection of original pieces by 50 writers on the 50 states. No usual suspects here, no sloppy nostalgia....Take this book to the road." Chicago Tribune
Review:
"This eclectic collection of essays describing the ordinary people and places within our 50 states is as essential as the Rand McNally atlas....Alternately brash and bashful...each literary foray in State by State is well worth the trip. (Grade: A)" Entertainment Weekly
Review:
"A funny, moving, rousing collection, greater than the sum of its excellent parts, a convention of literary superdelegates." J.R. Moehringer, New York Times Book Review
Review:
"An intriguing literary collage of personal histories, observations and explorations....[T]he one defining theme of State by State is that, despite the big box stores, the endless stretches of chain restaurants and fast food joints and the dumbing down of culture, the country retains its stubborn, often vibrant tendency toward individuality." Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Review:
"Readers with an interest in the endless variety of attitudes, lifestyles, viewpoints, and experiences to be found across America will enjoy this work." Library Journal
Synopsis:
See America with 50 of Our Finest, Funniest, and Foremost Writers Anthony Bourdain chases the fumigation truck in Bergen County, New Jersey
Dave Eggers tells it straight: Illinois is Number 1
Louise Erdrich loses her bikini top in North Dakota
Jonathan Franzen gets waylaid by New York's publicist...and personal attorney...and historian...and geologist
John Hodgman explains why there is no such thing as a "Massachusettsean"
Edward P. Jones makes the case: D.C. should be a state!
Jhumpa Lahiri declares her reckless love for the Rhode Island coast
Rick Moody explores the dark heart of Connecticut's Merritt Parkway, exit by exit
Ann Patchett makes a pilgrimage to the Civil War site at Shiloh, Tennessee
William T. Vollmann visits a San Francisco S&M club and Many More!
Matt Weiland is the Deputy Editor of the Paris Review. He has been an editor at Granta, the Baffler and the New Press, and he oversaw a documentary radio unit at NPR. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, New York Observer, the Nation and the New Republic. He is the co-editor, with Sean Wilsey, of The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup and, with Thomas Frank, of Commodify Your Dissent: The Business of Culture in the New Gilded Age. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.
Sean Wilsey is the author of Oh the Glory of It All, a memoir. He is also an Editor-at-Large for McSweeney's, and the co-editor, with Matt Weiland, of The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup.
Preface by Matt Weiland
Introduction by Sean Wilsey
The 50 States:
Alabama by George Packer
Alaska by Paul Greenberg
Arizona by Lydia Millet
Arkansas by Kevin Brockmeier
California by William T. Vollmann
Colorado by Benjamin Kunkel
Connecticut by Rick Moody
Delaware by Craig Taylor
Florida by Joshua Ferris
Georgia by Ha Jin
Hawaii by Tara Bray Smith
Idaho by Anthony Doerr
Illinois by Dave Eggers
Indiana by Susan Choi
Iowa by Dagoberto Gilb
Kansas by Jim Lewis
Kentucky by John Jeremiah Sullivan
Louisiana by Joshua Clark
Maine by Heidi Julavits
Maryland by Myla Goldberg
Massachusetts by John Hodgman
Michigan by Mohammed Naseehu Ali
Minnesota by Philip Connors
Mississippi by Barry Hannah
Missouri by Jacki Lyden
Montana by Sarah Vowell
Nebraska by Alexander Payne
Nevada by Charles Bock
New Hampshire by Will Blythe
New Jersey by Anthony Bourdain
New Mexico by Ellery Washington
New York by Jonathan Franzen
North Carolina by Randall Kenan
North Dakota by Louise Erdrich
Ohio by Susan Orlean
Oklahoma by S.E. Hinton
Oregon by Joe Sacco
Pennsylvania by Andrea Lee
Rhode Island by Jhumpa Lahiri
South Carolina by Jack Hitt
South Dakota by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh
Tennessee by Ann Patchett
Texas by Cristina Hernriquez
Utah by David Rakoff
Vermont by Alison Bechdel
Virginia by Tony Horwitz
Washington by Carrie Brownstein
West Virginia by Jayne Anne Phillips
Wisconsin by Daphne Beal
Wyoming by Alexandra Fuller
Afterword on Washington, D.C.: A Conversation with Edward P. Jones
The 50 States in Numbers:
Population
Population increase
Foreign-born population
No religion
Birth rate
Median age
Gross state product
Bankruptcy filings
Military recruits
Best educated
Public education expenditure
Divorce rate
Suicide rate
Violent crime
Incarceration rate
Oil consumption
Gasoline consumption
Alcohol consumption
Cigarette consumption
Cocaine use
Marijuana use
No health insurance
Ever breastfed
Toothless residents
Overweight and obese
Highest monthly temperature
Lowest monthly temperature
lukas, October 23, 2009 (view all comments by lukas)
Based on old WPA guides, this clever anthology offers essays on all 50 states, by a variety of writers, journalists, artists and musicians. As expected, the quality varies. The best entries are those that combine the personal with some history of the state and a feel for the people and culture. The worst are ones where boring writers dwell on their boring childhoods. Two of the entries are comics and you wish they would have been more creative in their author choices, which are heavily weighted towards the NPR/This American Life/New Yorker/McSweeney's gang. Should've been accompanied by a CD. Still, worth reading for the best entries.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No (1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
"Review"
by Los Angeles Times,
"In its personalized way, State by State is an antidote to the oversimplifying red state/blue state rubric....Odds are, reading State by State, that you'll fall for every state a little."
"Review"
by Chicago Tribune,
"The WPA state guides of the 1930s were intended to 'describe America to Americans' and inspired this wonderful collection of original pieces by 50 writers on the 50 states. No usual suspects here, no sloppy nostalgia....Take this book to the road."
"Review"
by Entertainment Weekly,
"This eclectic collection of essays describing the ordinary people and places within our 50 states is as essential as the Rand McNally atlas....Alternately brash and bashful...each literary foray in State by State is well worth the trip. (Grade: A)"
"Review"
by J.R. Moehringer, New York Times Book Review,
"A funny, moving, rousing collection, greater than the sum of its excellent parts, a convention of literary superdelegates."
"Review"
by Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,
"An intriguing literary collage of personal histories, observations and explorations....[T]he one defining theme of State by State is that, despite the big box stores, the endless stretches of chain restaurants and fast food joints and the dumbing down of culture, the country retains its stubborn, often vibrant tendency toward individuality."
"Review"
by Library Journal,
"Readers with an interest in the endless variety of attitudes, lifestyles, viewpoints, and experiences to be found across America will enjoy this work."
"Synopsis"
by Harper Collins,
See America with 50 of Our Finest, Funniest, and Foremost Writers Anthony Bourdain chases the fumigation truck in Bergen County, New Jersey
Dave Eggers tells it straight: Illinois is Number 1
Louise Erdrich loses her bikini top in North Dakota
Jonathan Franzen gets waylaid by New York's publicist...and personal attorney...and historian...and geologist
John Hodgman explains why there is no such thing as a "Massachusettsean"
Edward P. Jones makes the case: D.C. should be a state!
Jhumpa Lahiri declares her reckless love for the Rhode Island coast
Rick Moody explores the dark heart of Connecticut's Merritt Parkway, exit by exit
Ann Patchett makes a pilgrimage to the Civil War site at Shiloh, Tennessee
William T. Vollmann visits a San Francisco S&M club and Many More!
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