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If NPR wrote a book... Oct 1, 2008 (41 of 46 found this helpful)
This is not a bad book by any means. It's got some decent photos, and some of the essays I've read (not all. I've only focused on the states I've lived in or visited for any length of time, plus Michigan), are very well written.
Here's the problem, though. When I read them, I keep "hearing" them in what I can only describe as an "NPR voice". Now I like NPR, and I'm as liberal as liberal gets, but frankly some of these essays annoy me. They seem to only want to focus on the negatives (California), come off as somewhat smug (Arizona), or focus on what I can best describe as "quaint native culture" (Alaska).
There's this vaguely irritating trend where the authors always seem to feel the need to remind us that Europeans weren't here first. There also seems to be a constant lament about how horrible it is that we've lost touch with nature and destroyed the natural world, etc, etc. None of this is exactly bad, per se, but it's brought up constantly and gets old.
As for the presentation... the book feels like a textbook, and I don't mean that in some abstract way. I mean that when you touch the non-dust-cover-having cover, it physically feels like a textbook. More to the point, it seems almost like it's trying to mimic the look and feel of a book from the 1950's or 1960's. This isn't bad, but it is rather odd.
Overall this book is not what I'd expected or hoped for. It's a perfectly ok book in some ways, but gets annoying after a while. Probably best read in small doses, if at all. I will say the demographic information at the end of the book is quite spiffy, and what keeps this from being two stars.
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But where I come from.... Sep 28, 2008 (27 of 30 found this helpful)
Editors Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey commissioned a group of (very) different writers to write an essay on each of the 50 states. Some of these writers are well-known award winners, others are less familiar. They are reporters, novelists, playwrights, filmmakers and even a musician. Some are natives or long time residents of their states, and others are more recent transplants. Some were even sent to the state just to get a sense of the place from a writer's eyes. .
This book is a follow-up of sorts, to the WPA Federal Writers Project of the 1930's, which similarly hired a group of writers to write state guides, "to describe American to Americans." Each guide was more than 500 pages.
We all know a lot has happened since the 1930's, and our country has become a lot more homogenized. We all listen to the same music on our XM radios, and we can shop at the same big box stores, or snack at the same fast food restaurants.
But each state is still unique, and these essays attempt to show us how. Some of the writers talk about the history, others the landscape, and others describe the personalities of people who inhabit particular places. Some talk about the myths and the positive things that would appeal to the local Chamber of Commerce, and others are more gloomy and talk about the problems. And many of these essays contain all of these things.
This is a strange book to review, because each story is so different, both in style (different writers) and obviously in substance. For that reason, readers will enjoy reading some of these essays, and not care for others. But this is a unique and timely book, and a wonderful way to "see" each state. As Matt Weiland told the writers:
"To everyone we said: Tell us a story about your state, the more personal the better, something that captures the essence of the place. Not the kind of story one hears in a musty lecture hall or one reads in the dusty pages of an encyclopedia. The kind of story the enlisted soldier tells his boot-camp bunkmate about back home. The kind of story wistful and wise, that begins, 'Well, I don't know about you, but where I come from...."
And they did.
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It's a mixed bag Jan 19, 2009 (8 of 8 found this helpful)
In a book that is a collection of essays like this one, I suppose it is inevitable that the quality -- and the appeal of various chapters to various tastes -- will be uneven. That's true of this book.
Some of the 50 writers appear to have a genuine affection for "their" states. To others, including some who confess to being neither natives nor residents, their essay seems like a grim duty to be gotten over as soon as possible.
For instance, Daphne Beal and Alexandra Fuller give us memorable pictures of Wisconsin and Wyoming, respectively. Beal, a native, presents a fond but realistic look at her state, Germans, Poles, beer, cheese, Milwaukee, and all. Fuller displays a unique, wry wit in discussing Wyoming, full of quirky but decent "cowboys."
On the other hand, Susan Choi, a Hoosier, spends most of her time talking about her father, a Korean-American, and precious little on the residents of Indiana as a whole. And she uses that awful word, "Indianans", to describe us! Shame, shame! We're HOOSIERS, darn it! But she gives some pretty good descriptions of various parts of our (more varied than most people think) state.
Mainers get a good portrait from Heidi Julavits -- humorous looks at a flinty New England people who really DON'T waste words. Just like their stereotype. Eh-yep.
Dagoberto Gilb spends his entire allotted space on Iowa talking about the Mexicans who have moved there in recent years -- both legal and illegal. Mildly interesting -- but what about the other 90-plus percent of Iowans?
California hardly gets a fair hearing from William T. Vollmann, either. He talks much about how the nasty old white people have despoiled the state's beaches, forests, mountains, take your pick. When he announces that his favorite city in the whole, big wide country is San Francisco, you know where his basic sympathies lie. The goings-on in an S & M club and dungeon have little to do with the state or its people, but we get a full, bated-breath description of them from Vollmann. Thanks so much for sharing that with us, Bill.
Connecticut appears as a once-WASP state in transition in Rick Moody's essay. He's a native, and he gives us a vivid mind's eye view of the state while skilfully weaving his own story into and through it.
Finally, there is my choice for the worst essay in the book: That of David Rakoff on Utah. I don't know what Rakoff has against the Mormon church, whose people founded the state, but the essay is mainly concerned with blatantly and unapologetically slamming the LDS in any way possible. A number of "While I was there I was told" allegations against the Mormons are made, most of them nonsense, some downright scurrilous. Rakoff's aim seems to be to make Utah appear a desert wasteland, populated mostly by religious fanatics.
In my opinion, a number of the writers spend far too much time bemoaning the "plight of the black man" and how the whites "stole the Indians' land." Show me a huge, diverse nation that was founded without some groups succeeding and others falling behind, and I'll show you a fairy tale.
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Skip Saïd''s essay. Sep 25, 2008 (26 of 32 found this helpful)
I've hitchhiked cross-country three times; I've lived and worked in 13 states, and have visited them all with only one or two exceptions. My favorite reading when flying is a collection of essays - for obvious reasons. State-By-State is exactly the kind of book I would pick up in paperback at the airport. [I have a hard cover copy.]
I ordered this sight unseen and I was not disappointed. It is very enjoyable reading. To get a sense of whether the various authors hit the target set by the editors, I first read those essays of states where I had spent the most time. Except for the essay on South Dakota (essayist: Saïd Sayrafiezadeh) I was very impressed. I thought the following were particularly excellent: North Dakota, South Carolina, California, and Iowa. In fact, every essay was superb, except Saïd''s. I have no idea why the editors accepted his self-centered, smug out-of-town review. I particularly admired the ability of William T. Vollmann (CA) to cover so much territory in so few pages (his was one of the longer essays at 13 pages) and let me re-live my halcyon days in paradise.
It was probably only me, but I did not recognize the names of any of the authors, except for one (Randall Kenan, NC). It appeared most of the essayists were new authors, and I did not recognize any of their novels. That may not be surprising because with a math and science background, I only began a serious reading program in 2002 and have not gotten more recent than the 1920's with some exceptions (Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, Anaïs Nin and Ernest Hemingway, being the most notable). If not a novelist, the essayists were more than likely to be on staff or contributors to the New York Times or The New Yorker. Even when I learned one (Tony Horwitz) had been awarded a Pulitzer Prize (1995), I did not recognize any of his books.
The editors did include 30 tables of demographic data, everything from cigarette consumption to breastfeeding rate to suicide rate at the end of the book. The book would not have been diminished had these tables not been included. Somehow the tables seemed to make the book appear more like a reference book. Perhaps it was the glaring, bold font.
Examples of how the essayists got it exactly right (for the most part):
Cristina Henriquez (TX) noted that Texans make a note of whether one is born a Texan or if one is transplanted. Henriquez got that exactly right. Christina came from Iowa.
Anthony Bourdain (NJ) reminds us how the state has become a "punchline" but at the same time, when he travels in the US, he notes that every state now looks exactly like New Jersey (malls, franchise eateries, Victoria Secret superstores, and Home Depots). Touché.
Jonathan Franzen (NY) reminded me again why so many people have a negative view of the Big Apple and New Yorkers in general (it's likely most people are not aware there is more to New York than the city). The author simply transcribed an interview with the governor's and mayor's straphangers and, to some extent, the main men themselves. I think Franzen took the money and ran, providing us a glimpse of "a New York minute."
Jack Hitt (SC) explains the difference between Charleston and the rest of the state. Superb. This is perhaps the best of the best essays for hitting the editors' mark. New Yorkers have nothing over the Charlestonians when it comes to snobbery, according to Hitt. For proof he notes: the residents say "the two rivers that shape the peninsula of downtown Charleston - the Ashley and the Cooper - come together to form the Atlantic Ocean."
Louise Erdrich (ND) notes that the density of her home state and mine is between nine and ten people per square mile, and most of them live in three "big" cities. If you avoid these population centers, she says, you can travel in a blissful abeyance of humankind. You can help me out by doing a word search for me,
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Magnificent Collection of Essays about Our Great Country Sep 29, 2008 (10 of 12 found this helpful)
This book is a compilation of essays; one written directly for each state in the United States. Each is written by a different author that has a connection directly to the state that the author is writing about, which authenticates the essays as truly wonderful works about the states they know, and in most case, love.
Some of the essays are long, while some are fairly short. Some cover large geographical areas and some cover minute portions of the state. And each has a particular slant about the state that is unique to each essay. From covering life along the Merritt Parkway as a youth in Connecticut to living in the desert in Arizona, each essay presents a look into the wonders of the state that you won't find in any other form of travel writing.
Having lived in a number of states, and having traveled to all of them rather extensively, I can attest to the creativity and unique look that each essay provides at each of the states. In many cases, I was getting nostalgic and reliving the memories I had of a particular state. I was reminded of why each state is different, but also so similar.
While you may not like every essay, and I am sure each person will find a few to love and a few to hate, varying by the individual reader, this book is a great look at the United States. If, like me, you like short stories and essays, this will be a book you will treasure. I highly recommend this book to all, as it is a wonderful way to learn about the country without leaving the comfort of your home.