State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America
by Matt Weiland, Sean Wilsey
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Book Summary Information
Author: Matt Weiland, Sean WilseyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-09-16
ISBN: 0061470902
Number of pages: 608
Publisher: Ecco
Book Reviews of State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America
Book Review: Read it selectively
Summary: 3 Stars
State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America
I question whether this book was a good idea. The editors, attempted to recruit a writer for each of the fifty states, a writer who could tell us something unique and essential about the state he or she was assigned. The editors recognized that they could not emulate the massive scope of the WPA Federal Writers Project of the 1930s, although they were inspired by it. In this case they wanted to fit it all in one book.
There are at least two big problems with this approach. First, the practical page limit, typically about ten pages or less per state, does not give the selected author much space to work with. If we really want to get a feel for Texas, for example, wouldn't it require a little more of a reading commitment from us? And second, it was apparently not easy to engage authors with good first-hand knowledge for all of the states.
The editors try to turn the latter limitation to the book's advantage by claiming that they wanted perspectives from newcomers for some states. But generally these matches do not work very well. There are too many authors here whose principal credential for inclusion in this volume seems to be their residence in New York, and in Brooklyn in particular.
The "newcomer's perspective" works better in certain cases where immigrants are represented. The immigrant may be the author of the essay (Ha Jin on living in an Atlanta suburb, for example). Or, a native author may have chosen to let immigrants speak prominently in the essay (Bosnians in St. Louis or Mexican farm workers in Iowa, for instance).
Several big-name writers appear, some matched quite well to their assigned states - Jayne Anne Phillips on West Virginia and Louise Erdrich on North Dakota, for example. But other matches are more dubious - Jonathan Franzen gets New York, not his native Missouri. His labored dialogue, which anthropomorphizes the state as a female pop culture star with a publicist, a lawyer, and so on, comes off as a dud, in my view.
Some of the more engaging essays come from authors who (1) are otherwise not professional writers of adult literature and who (2) violate one of the editors' supposed principles. I enjoyed the take of filmmaker Alexander Payne on Nebraska, for instance. Even though the editors claimed they did not want partisan arguments, Payne chose to be an unapologetic advocate of life in Omaha. The chef Anthony Bourdain is a similar champion of New Jersey and S.E. Hinton, an author of young-adult fiction, promotes Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Overall, the most rewarding reading in this volume are those essays where the author both knows his or her subject intimately and seems to care passionately about the place. Generally these essays focus on only a small geographic slice of a state, such as Charles Bock on downtown Las Vegas.
The overall conclusion of State by State, the editors say, is that in spite of television, interstate highways, franchise retailing, and other homogenizing factors, states retain their own unique characters (in both senses: characteristics and colorful human residents). That verdict is easy enough to support, but another line of inquiry would probe how things are now compared to how they once were. The Bock essay and a few others are revealing in this respect, showing how the "creative destruction" of capitalism (Joseph Schumpeter's phrase) has played out in particular American places.
Other readers' opinions almost certainly will differ from my personal likes and dislikes in this volume. How one reacts to any given essay will be determined, in part, by his or her own prior experiences, or lack thereof, in the state. The most likely outcome is that each reader will find some of the essays worth reading, but not others. This is a book to be read selectively, according to one's own tastes.
Summary of State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America
Editors Sean Wilsey and Matt Weiland have turned to 50 of the finest, funniest, and foremost writers in America to create a state by state celebration of their country: Jonathan Franzen on New York, Louise Erdrich on North Dakota, Dave Eggers on Illinois, Ann Patchett on Tennessee, Jhumpa Lahiri on Rhode Island-the list goes on. At turns poignant and hysterical, and uniformly insightful, these fifty writers capture the beauty, the kitsch, the unexpected and the quintessential things that make America. There is something and someone in "State by State" for everyone. With a roster of bestsellers and award winners, from Ann Patchett to Rick Moody to Myla Goldberg, Wilsey and Weiland have culled the best of the best from the literary creme de la creme to write on something all Americans are interested in: our country.United States Books
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