About this title: 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 ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Ecco
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780061470912ISBN:0061470910
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 608 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. Pristine Gift Ready First Edition, First Printing, 608p., Afterword, illustrations, The 50 States in Numbers, Acknowledgments, About The Contributors and About The Editors Included, No Remainder Marks, Mint read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Ecco
Date Published: 2008-09-01
ISBN-13:9780061470905ISBN:0061470902
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Ecco
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780061470912ISBN:0061470910
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS INC Country = UNITED STATES
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780061470912ISBN:0061470910
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 400 pages. Features a state by state celebration of america including: jonathan franzen on new york, louise erdrich on north dakota, dave eggers on illinois, ann patchett on tennessee, and jhumpa lahiri on rhode island. illustrations (Paperback) read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Ecco Pr
Date Published: 2008-09-01
ISBN-13:9780061470905ISBN:0061470902
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780061470905. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Ecco
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780061470905ISBN:0061470902
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Ecco
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780061470905ISBN:0061470902
Description: Very good. No dust jacket. Glued binding. Cloth over boards. 572 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. VERY CLEAN BOOK, THIS BOOK IS FROM A PRIVATE LIBRARY AND MAY HAVE A STAMP ON THE FIRST PAGE AND SPINE LABEL. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: HARPER COLLINS WORLD
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780061470912ISBN:0061470910
Description: Features a state by state celebration of America including: Jonathan Franzen on New York, Louise Erdrich on North Dakota, Dave Eggers on Illinois, Ann Patchett on Tennessee, and Jhumpa Lahiri on Rhode Island. read more
"I brought my rating up from one star to two based almost solely on the efforts of one Dave Eggers, whose treatise on his home state of Illinois and her unique history just barely redeemed the whole of the midwest from some pretty disappointing writing. My home state of Michigan, for example, is an unimpressive essay by an even less impressive essayist who was selected, I can only assume, on accident, as he was actually a resident of Africa only briefly staying in the state on a school visa. How this qualified him to write about my Michigan is beyond me. There was nothing about the tragic beauty of the state -- the one thing that makes Michigan so depressing and interesting at the same time. Nothing about fiery sunsets and grey Januarys, hospitable summers and spirit crushing winters, vibrant tourism and hopeless unemployment. Instead, this fellow opted to tell a story about how some wolverines seem to be hospitable during holidays.
Maybe I'm taking this too personally.
But then again, maybe I'm not. I enjoyed Sarah Vowell's Montana and John Hodgman's Massachusetts, and I'm an absolute sucker for essays and history. But a couple bright spots and shining moments wasn't enough to catapult this book beyond its novelty and (unfortunately) mediocrity to something more memorable. It's a nice idea and a functional coffee table book, drowning in the sheer scope of the project and the poor choice of authors.
"This was a really enjoyable anthology--I especially enjoyed the essays on Maine, Florida, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Rhode Island. I also discovered a host of new authors whose other works I'd like to check out.
Are there any common threads among the states? If there's any take-away from this book, it's the sense of belonging, and how elusive such inclusivity can be. Birthright, from coast to coast, seems to be the one guarantee of being a local. Arriving at any other point in life, regardless of age, civic involvement, passion for your community and neighbors, and overall devotion to a region is no guarantee you'll be embraced as a state's "own." And likewise, to leave your home state is never to leave at all, for your state will always have its hooks in you and claim you as rightfully and integrally its own.
Additionally, this is no casual or patriotic read. Many essays are deeply critical of local communities, politics, natural surroundings, and more. Don't expect any flag waving here. I was continually surprised by the mix of reverence and criticism, and how both elements push and pull to create a vivid sense of place."
"This book is a great treat, although, as always with anthologies, some stories are better than others. The editors, Weiland, deputy editor of the Paris Review, and Wilsey, editor-at-large for McSweeney's, wanted to make a book that is inspired by the WPA Guides - what timing given the current crisis! The American Guide series of the Federal Writers Project in the 1930s, in which the Works Project Administration (WPA), as part of F.D.R's New Deal, put more than 6000 American writers to work creating a portrait of this country. Among others, one finds Dave Eggars (Illinois), Rick Moody (Connecticut), Jhumpa Lahiri (Rhode Island), Barry Hannah (Mississippi), William T. Vollmann (California) and a great piece by Johnathan Franzen on New York. This book makes a great gift too!"
"It took me forever to get through this, but it's not the kind of book that's best enjoyed by pushing straight through. Better, to mull over an essay at a time.
Modeled after the WPA guides, it's a collection of 50 essays by 50 writers. As with any project like this, there are plenty of hits, plenty of misses. Going back through, some of the essays I liked the best were Joshua Ferris on Florida, Ha Jin on Georgia, Dave Eggers on Illinois, Heidi Julavits on Maine, John Hodgman on Massachusetts, Charles Bock on Nevada, Anthony Bourdain on New Jersey, Joe Sacco on Oregon, Jhumpa Lahiri on Rhode Island, and Alison Bechdel on Vermont. The two states I know best, Utah by David Rakoff, and Virginia by Tony Horwitz were one-dimensional. Susan Orlean and Sarah Vowell seemed to have phoned in their essays on Ohio and Montana. I thought the worst of the book was Jonathan Frantzen's not-nearly-as-clever-as-he-seemed-to-think-it-was take on New York. But then this is the kind of book that another reader would go through and pick a different set of successes and failures.
It is worth your time, with fewer mediocre essays and more great writers than most compilations of this kind. The stats before each essay and in the back were also fun, in fact, there could have been more of those."
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