A virtuoso book about midwestern identity and the future of the
region. Named a Commonweal Notable Book of 2020, a finalist for a
Midwest Independent Book award, and winner of the Independent Publisher
Awards' 2020 Bronze Medal for Great Lakes Nonfiction.
The Midwest: Is it middle? Or is it Western? As Phil Christman writes in
this idiosyncratic, critically acclaimed essay collection, these and
other ambiguities might well be the region's defining characteristic.
Deftly combining history, criticism, and memoir, Christman breaks his
exploration of midwestern identity, past and present, into a suite of
thirty-six brief, interconnected essays. Ranging across material
questions of religion, race, class, climate, and Midwestern myth making,
the result is a sometimes sardonic, often uproarious, and consistently
thought-provoking look at a misunderstood place and the people who call
it home.
As James Fallows of The Atlantic noted, it's "A combination of
history, memoir, reportage, and lit-crit that taught me a lot about a
region I've reported on.... Check it out."
For anyone who has ever wondered why being from the Midwest is
synonymous with "normalcy," even when nothing could be further from the
truth.