State By State: A Panoramic Portrait Of America (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
Fifty essays by notable writers on each of the fifty states. Especially worthwhile due to its impressive line-up of contributors: Dave Eggers on Illinois, Ann Patchett on Tennessee, Jonathan Franzen on New York, Jhumpa Lahiri on Rhode Island, Sara Vowell on Montana, Anthony Bourdain on New Jersey, Louise Erdrich on North Dakota, Alexander Payne on Nebraska, Carrie Brownstein on Oregon, Susan Orlean on Ohio...you get the idea. As with any collection, there are some pieces that shine brighter and offer more insight than others, but then you might not be that interested in Delaware anyway. A good one. Ugh. I know that when this many different authors contribute to a work, there is bound to be essays that just stink; sadly, this collection seems to stink as a whole. Most of the writers seemed to focus on something already-known and exaggerated/disparaging about each state. Alabama is racist? People fish for salmon in Alaska? Arkansas is mixed politically? (As you can tell, the states are listed alphabetically). I jumped to my home state of South Carolina, pleased to see the essay was written by Jack Hitt. And guess what - he decided to write about how quirky, noble, and non-SC-ish the citizens of Charleston are! Snooze. As a South Carolinian, I am pretty sick of reading about Charleston as "the" city in SC. I enjoyed Alexandra Fuller's Wyoming, Alison Bechdel's Vermont, and Ha Jin's Georgia; but the majority of the rest were predictable or downright unreadable.
What do You think about State By State: A Panoramic Portrait Of America (2008)?
Pretty consistently good. A little monotonal but still enjoyable.
—tehreem
It's wonderful to see comics included in a short story anthology!
—adill49
