The United States of Fiction
October 12, 2022 1:40 PM Subscribe
As a reading challenge, I’d like to read the best novel set in each US state. What are your favorites?
Any subgenre, as long as it’s fiction. I’m looking for books in which the setting is a character, central to the story. This question was inspired by reading Midcoast by Adam White (Maine.) Non-white, non-male perspectives enthusiastically welcomed but will accept white dudes too. I’d especially love recommendations for states that might be underrepresented like Idaho or whatever.
Any subgenre, as long as it’s fiction. I’m looking for books in which the setting is a character, central to the story. This question was inspired by reading Midcoast by Adam White (Maine.) Non-white, non-male perspectives enthusiastically welcomed but will accept white dudes too. I’d especially love recommendations for states that might be underrepresented like Idaho or whatever.
American Gods has extensive Wisconsin scenes (House on the Rock sequence and then a long part in a small town in Wisconsin that reads very real. Quite a good book, though the TV series kind of fell apart.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 1:46 PM on October 12, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by I claim sanctuary at 1:46 PM on October 12, 2022 [7 favorites]
All the King’s Men for Georgia!
posted by mermaidcafe at 1:46 PM on October 12, 2022
posted by mermaidcafe at 1:46 PM on October 12, 2022
For DC, Lost in the City. (Not technically a novel, but interlinked short stories, so close. Then again, DC's not a state, but also close.) For other options, see 18 books that capture the spirit and essence of living in D.C.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 1:50 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 1:50 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
Northern Borders for Vermont
posted by a humble nudibranch at 1:51 PM on October 12, 2022
posted by a humble nudibranch at 1:51 PM on October 12, 2022
Pulitzer prize-winning Lonesome Dove for Texas. Don't read it for Texas; read it because it is amazing.
posted by wile e at 1:53 PM on October 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by wile e at 1:53 PM on October 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
Grapes of Wrath, Oklahoma.
If you have already read that one, Where the Red Ferns grows or The Outsiders, although they are juvenile books, they are worth a read if you havent.
posted by domino at 1:54 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
If you have already read that one, Where the Red Ferns grows or The Outsiders, although they are juvenile books, they are worth a read if you havent.
posted by domino at 1:54 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford for New Mexico . Or Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya.
posted by omphale27 at 2:11 PM on October 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by omphale27 at 2:11 PM on October 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
For Iowa, maybe Gilead or Home by Marilynne Robinson. Or Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres.
posted by pinochiette at 2:18 PM on October 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by pinochiette at 2:18 PM on October 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
Maine: Country of the Pointed Firs, Sarah Orne Jewett (short story collection)
posted by Elsie at 2:20 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Elsie at 2:20 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
I just finished "The Snow Child" by Eowyn Ivey and was enraptured by it. Alaska, 1920s.
My Antonia, by Willa Cather--Nebraska
Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Cather--New Mexico (when a territory)
You already mentioned Maine, but Oliver Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is well worth a read.
posted by CiaoMela at 2:21 PM on October 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
My Antonia, by Willa Cather--Nebraska
Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Cather--New Mexico (when a territory)
You already mentioned Maine, but Oliver Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is well worth a read.
posted by CiaoMela at 2:21 PM on October 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
All the King’s Men for Georgia!
I always pegged the state in All the King's Men for Louisiana. It's been a while since I read it-- might just be the Huey Long metaphor but I remember the descriptions of the state being a dead-ringer for Louisiana and I'm pretty sure the narrator crosses the state line into Texas at one point.
For Idaho, there's Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping.
posted by CactusJack at 2:25 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
I always pegged the state in All the King's Men for Louisiana. It's been a while since I read it-- might just be the Huey Long metaphor but I remember the descriptions of the state being a dead-ringer for Louisiana and I'm pretty sure the narrator crosses the state line into Texas at one point.
For Idaho, there's Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping.
posted by CactusJack at 2:25 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
Idaho - Denis Johnson - Train Dreams
California - AM Homes - This Book Will Save Your Life
posted by dobbs at 2:26 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
California - AM Homes - This Book Will Save Your Life
posted by dobbs at 2:26 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Marilynne Robinson is great but I will cast a vote for Jane Smiley's Moo as a very, VERY Iowa novel.
posted by Jeanne at 2:39 PM on October 12, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by Jeanne at 2:39 PM on October 12, 2022 [7 favorites]
Vernon God Little, tx
posted by j_curiouser at 2:41 PM on October 12, 2022
posted by j_curiouser at 2:41 PM on October 12, 2022
Great project!
For Virginia: My Monticello.
For North Carolina: Even As We Breathe
posted by basalganglia at 2:42 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
For Virginia: My Monticello.
For North Carolina: Even As We Breathe
posted by basalganglia at 2:42 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Little Women is an obvious choice for Massachusetts.
posted by emd3737 at 3:00 PM on October 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by emd3737 at 3:00 PM on October 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
I kinda feel.like Maine needs to be a Stephen King book.
posted by emd3737 at 3:02 PM on October 12, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by emd3737 at 3:02 PM on October 12, 2022 [12 favorites]
I'd go with Midwives for Vermont.
posted by emd3737 at 3:03 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by emd3737 at 3:03 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Ok I'm really enjoying this question. For North Dakota, The Round House by Louise Erdrich. If you've never read anything by her prepare to be blown away.
posted by emd3737 at 3:07 PM on October 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by emd3737 at 3:07 PM on October 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
Oregon: Ken Kesey - Sometimes a Great Notion
posted by Redstart at 3:07 PM on October 12, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by Redstart at 3:07 PM on October 12, 2022 [9 favorites]
I am not gonna argue against A Confederacy of Dunces, because I've read it several times, but if you want a non-male, non-white perspective, The Vanishing Half is set in Louisiana and the town is central to the story.
posted by radioamy at 3:08 PM on October 12, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by radioamy at 3:08 PM on October 12, 2022 [8 favorites]
In each of these, the setting of the novel is like a character in it:
Alaska: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (She also has a lot of books that take place in Washington State if you need a book for WA.)
Ohio: Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
California: Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo
Massachussetts: That Summer, Jennifer Weiner
New York: City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert
Mississippi: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
posted by hydra77 at 3:09 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
Alaska: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (She also has a lot of books that take place in Washington State if you need a book for WA.)
Ohio: Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
California: Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo
Massachussetts: That Summer, Jennifer Weiner
New York: City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert
Mississippi: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
posted by hydra77 at 3:09 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
Tennessee - Nothing To See Here
The state is not a character in it's own right but the author is from Tennessee and makes it clear that's where the story is set.
posted by Goblin Barbarian at 3:11 PM on October 12, 2022
The state is not a character in it's own right but the author is from Tennessee and makes it clear that's where the story is set.
posted by Goblin Barbarian at 3:11 PM on October 12, 2022
Washington - Annie Dillard - The Living
posted by Redstart at 3:13 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Redstart at 3:13 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Mississippi - Eudora Welty - Delta Wedding
posted by Redstart at 3:28 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Redstart at 3:28 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Alabama: If you've already read To Kill A Mockingbird, I'd go with Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe by Fannie Flagg for a female and LGBT perspective.
posted by Chuck Barris at 3:32 PM on October 12, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Chuck Barris at 3:32 PM on October 12, 2022 [5 favorites]
California - Kem Nunn - Tapping the Source
posted by Rash at 3:54 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Rash at 3:54 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
Maine is the setting for King’s The Dead Zone, which I think is one of his best.
The only novel I can think of set in Colorado is On the Road, but I can barely stand Kerouac.
One of my faves is set in California, but The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon seems to irritate more people than it entrances, and I don’t think even I would give it pride of place.
posted by jamjam at 3:56 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
The only novel I can think of set in Colorado is On the Road, but I can barely stand Kerouac.
One of my faves is set in California, but The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon seems to irritate more people than it entrances, and I don’t think even I would give it pride of place.
posted by jamjam at 3:56 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Alabama: If you've already read To Kill A Mockingbird, I'd go with Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe by Fannie Flagg for a female and LGBT perspective.
I was torn between posting exactly that and this one, so I'll go with this:
Mississippi - Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Fannie Flagg
posted by Mchelly at 3:59 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
I was torn between posting exactly that and this one, so I'll go with this:
Mississippi - Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Fannie Flagg
posted by Mchelly at 3:59 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
Florida - Their Eyes Were Watching God
Though it's probably wrong to do Florida and not do a Hiaasen book.
posted by Mchelly at 4:09 PM on October 12, 2022 [8 favorites]
Though it's probably wrong to do Florida and not do a Hiaasen book.
posted by Mchelly at 4:09 PM on October 12, 2022 [8 favorites]
Wisconsin: Driftless, by David Rhodes
Minnesota: Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis
Illinois: Studs Lonigan Trilogy by James T. Farrell and Native Son by Richard Wright
Ohio: The Homewood Trilogy by John Edgar Wideman
North Dakota: The Bingo Palace and Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Maine: The Cider House Rules, by John Irving
The Funeral Makers by Cathie Pelletier
The Beans of Egypt, Maine by Carolyn Chute
Michigan: The Road to Wellville by TC Boyle
Missouri: The All True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton, by Jane Smiley
South Carolina: Sassafrass Cypress and Indigo by Ntozake Shange and Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Florida: Their Eyes were Watching God, by Zora Neal Hurston
posted by RedEmma at 4:13 PM on October 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
Minnesota: Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis
Illinois: Studs Lonigan Trilogy by James T. Farrell and Native Son by Richard Wright
Ohio: The Homewood Trilogy by John Edgar Wideman
North Dakota: The Bingo Palace and Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Maine: The Cider House Rules, by John Irving
The Funeral Makers by Cathie Pelletier
The Beans of Egypt, Maine by Carolyn Chute
Michigan: The Road to Wellville by TC Boyle
Missouri: The All True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton, by Jane Smiley
South Carolina: Sassafrass Cypress and Indigo by Ntozake Shange and Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Florida: Their Eyes were Watching God, by Zora Neal Hurston
posted by RedEmma at 4:13 PM on October 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
California: Gods Without Men, Hari Kunzru. The Mojave Desert is setting and character alike I'd say (and there's a good bit of true history mixed into the plot).
Arizona: choice between two Barbara Kingsolver novels, The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams, set mostly in Tucson and eastern Arizona, respectively. And while we're on Kingsolver, how about
Virginia: her forthcoming novel Demon Copperhead, set in the rural southwest part of the state, Dickens mixed with the opiod crisis. It's bound to be worth reading and my copy is on order. (As a current resident of the Charlottesville area, though, I have to second Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello noted above--the title story rings absolutely true to anyone who knows the town.)
posted by Creosote at 4:16 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Arizona: choice between two Barbara Kingsolver novels, The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams, set mostly in Tucson and eastern Arizona, respectively. And while we're on Kingsolver, how about
Virginia: her forthcoming novel Demon Copperhead, set in the rural southwest part of the state, Dickens mixed with the opiod crisis. It's bound to be worth reading and my copy is on order. (As a current resident of the Charlottesville area, though, I have to second Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello noted above--the title story rings absolutely true to anyone who knows the town.)
posted by Creosote at 4:16 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Georgia: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil practically makes you sweat from the Georgia humidity. Made me want to visit Savannah.
South Dakota: The Long Winter (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
...would love to see what you end up choosing - and maybe we make it a MeFi read-along?
posted by hydra77 at 4:21 PM on October 12, 2022 [5 favorites]
South Dakota: The Long Winter (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
...would love to see what you end up choosing - and maybe we make it a MeFi read-along?
posted by hydra77 at 4:21 PM on October 12, 2022 [5 favorites]
For Massachusetts I’m torn between Infinite Jest and The Handmaids Tale.
The all time classic for Massachusetts, though, would have to The Scarlet Letter.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 4:26 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
The all time classic for Massachusetts, though, would have to The Scarlet Letter.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 4:26 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Hey jamjam, why not Vineland then ? (for Cali, for those not following)
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:28 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:28 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
This question is great and has made me realize just how few books I read that are set in the US.
I'm going to add a favorite though : Long Division by Kiese Laymon for Mississippi.
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:34 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm going to add a favorite though : Long Division by Kiese Laymon for Mississippi.
posted by OHenryPacey at 4:34 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
I have no idea how you narrow down New York. One for NY the state and one for NYC? One for the state itself and one for each borough? That plus another for Long Island? Too many good ones...
The Great Gatsby
Invisible Man
The House of Mirth
Call it Sleep
Jazz
Winter's Tale
The Pushcart War
All of A Kind Family
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Underworld
Time and Again
The Bell Jar
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
The Intuitionist
The Leavers
And those are just my favorites off the top of my head and you should probably just read all of them, sorry.
posted by Mchelly at 4:51 PM on October 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
The Great Gatsby
Invisible Man
The House of Mirth
Call it Sleep
Jazz
Winter's Tale
The Pushcart War
All of A Kind Family
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Underworld
Time and Again
The Bell Jar
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
The Intuitionist
The Leavers
And those are just my favorites off the top of my head and you should probably just read all of them, sorry.
posted by Mchelly at 4:51 PM on October 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
For New Mexico, a newish novel I'd recommend is The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade
posted by emd3737 at 4:57 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by emd3737 at 4:57 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
The Night Watchman, North Dakota
Another vote for Death Comes For the Archbishop for New Mexico, just a stunningly beautiful book about a place
posted by ch1x0r at 5:01 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Another vote for Death Comes For the Archbishop for New Mexico, just a stunningly beautiful book about a place
posted by ch1x0r at 5:01 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
California:
Play it As it Lays - Joan Didion
High Life by Matthew Stokoe (not for the faint of heart)
LA Confidential - James Ellroy
The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler
Day of the Locust - Nathanael West
Ask the Dust - John Fante
posted by dobbs at 5:04 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Play it As it Lays - Joan Didion
High Life by Matthew Stokoe (not for the faint of heart)
LA Confidential - James Ellroy
The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler
Day of the Locust - Nathanael West
Ask the Dust - John Fante
posted by dobbs at 5:04 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Colorado, both by Stephen King:
The Shining
The Stand (could also be Nevada)
posted by Fuego at 5:06 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
The Shining
The Stand (could also be Nevada)
posted by Fuego at 5:06 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Putting in a plug for East of Eden by John Steinbeck for California
posted by emd3737 at 5:16 PM on October 12, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by emd3737 at 5:16 PM on October 12, 2022 [5 favorites]
New Hampshire: A Prayer for Owen Meany
posted by kapers at 5:20 PM on October 12, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by kapers at 5:20 PM on October 12, 2022 [5 favorites]
New York City is literally the central character (s) of The City We Became by NK Jemisin
posted by supermedusa at 5:21 PM on October 12, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 5:21 PM on October 12, 2022 [7 favorites]
New Jersey: The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz; American Pastoral by Philip Roth; Bad Haircut: Stories from the Seventies by Tom Perrotta (story collection); Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume.
posted by gudrun at 5:23 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by gudrun at 5:23 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
For Montana, This House of Sky by Ivan Doig
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 5:24 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 5:24 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
This article has some decent choices, several of which were mentioned above.
posted by emd3737 at 5:28 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by emd3737 at 5:28 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
For Maryland - almost anything by Anne Tyler. And Chesapeake by James Michener!
posted by gingerjules at 5:40 PM on October 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by gingerjules at 5:40 PM on October 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
Forgot, also for Montana, Fool's Crow by James Welch. Mr. Welch was Blackfoot/A'aninin and his books and poetry deal in part with the pain and struggles between Native American (specifically Blackfoot) culture and lifeways and colonization. His poetry is also incredibly evocative, highly recommend.
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 5:46 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 5:46 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver for Arizona
posted by Otis the Lion at 5:55 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Otis the Lion at 5:55 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I drafted a similar list about a decade ago. It was fun, and I read quite a few of the books. Some quick thoughts:
Okay, I think this link should be publicly viewable: The Fictional United States. Please let me know if it's not. About 113 books mapped to their setting here. But it's not a project I pursued more than just a couple of hours.
posted by jdroth at 5:56 PM on October 12, 2022 [19 favorites]
- Somebody recommended All the King's Men for Georgia. My memory is that it's not set in Georgia but Louisiana, and there are probably better books because the place isn't really that important.
- Somebody else recommended Sometimes a Great Notion for Oregon. As a native Oregonian, I'll second this. It's pretty much the standard when somebody wants a book set here.
- Perhaps my favorite novel of all time is True Grit, which has a very distinct setting. But it overlaps two states. It starts in northwestern Arkansas, but much of the story takes place across the border in Oklahoma. Well worth reading, regardless.
- Sorry, but the Colorado recommendations in this thread are lousy. The Shining? If I were to pick, I'd go for Centennial by James Michener, in which the geography of the state plays a huge role. It's the book I read when I did my own state-based reading project. I'm glad I did.
- Definitely something by Louise Erdrich for the Dakotas.
- Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books have a terrific sense of place, although the place does differ from book to book. Still, they're perfect for your project.
- My Antonia (as already recommended) is perfect for Nebraska. Such a great book.
- Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier for North Carolina.
Okay, I think this link should be publicly viewable: The Fictional United States. Please let me know if it's not. About 113 books mapped to their setting here. But it's not a project I pursued more than just a couple of hours.
posted by jdroth at 5:56 PM on October 12, 2022 [19 favorites]
Virginia & DC:
Edward P. Jones (It is an ongoing source of frustration that it's so easy for me to list all of his books.)
Lost in the City (recommended above)
The Known World (This is the novel. The other 2 are short story collections.)
All Aunt Hagar's Children
Mississippi (Deep South):
William Faulkner (So many other books worth reading. These 2 kind of go together.)
The Sound and the Fury
Absalom, Absalom
posted by kingless at 6:10 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Edward P. Jones (It is an ongoing source of frustration that it's so easy for me to list all of his books.)
Lost in the City (recommended above)
The Known World (This is the novel. The other 2 are short story collections.)
All Aunt Hagar's Children
Mississippi (Deep South):
William Faulkner (So many other books worth reading. These 2 kind of go together.)
The Sound and the Fury
Absalom, Absalom
posted by kingless at 6:10 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Pennsylvania: John Updike is the logical author to pick; The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick.
posted by gudrun at 6:13 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by gudrun at 6:13 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Some Illinois ideas:
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffinger takes place very much in Chicago from about 1970-95.
Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck takes place in southern Illinois in the 1930s and is a hoot.
posted by mutt.cyberspace at 6:15 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffinger takes place very much in Chicago from about 1970-95.
Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck takes place in southern Illinois in the 1930s and is a hoot.
posted by mutt.cyberspace at 6:15 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Just for kicks, I'm going through the article that @emd3737 linked and adding any books that look interesting to me to my map, so it's going to have more than 113 books and locations on it. May go through the rest of this thread and do the same. But I'm only adding books that interest ME haha.
posted by jdroth at 6:28 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by jdroth at 6:28 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: jdroth - this map is incredible and I’m loving the synchronicity of our brains. Thank you for sharing it.
posted by tatiana wishbone at 6:32 PM on October 12, 2022
posted by tatiana wishbone at 6:32 PM on October 12, 2022
For Illinois, gotta be either Lizard Music or The Education or Robert Nifkin, both by Daniel Pinkwater.
posted by goodbyewaffles at 6:32 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by goodbyewaffles at 6:32 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
Washington - The Cold Millions by Jess Walter, about miners and Wobblies versus mine owners and cops in 1909 - 10, set mostly in Spokane but with scenes in Seattle and in Montana. Historical figures author/organizer Helen Gurley Brown and the mayor and police chief of Spokane are characters in the book.
posted by JonJacky at 6:38 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by JonJacky at 6:38 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Washington - The Cold Millions by Jess Walter, about miners and Wobblies versus mine owners and cops in 1909 - 10, set mostly in Spokane but with scenes in Seattle and Montana. Historical figures author/organizer Helen Gurley Brown and the mayor and police chief of Spokane are characters in the book.
Oops, this got posted twice somehow, sorry...
posted by JonJacky at 6:39 PM on October 12, 2022
Oops, this got posted twice somehow, sorry...
posted by JonJacky at 6:39 PM on October 12, 2022
There are some great books of excellent quality on this list so far. To shake things up, I recommend Undead and Unwed for Minnesota. One day she's a secretary working in the Twin Cities, the next she's Queen of the Underworld. One thing stays the same: she's still single. But for how long???
Ok fine. I just hate Sinclair Lewis's Main Street. Go with On the Banks is Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder instead!
posted by Gray Duck at 6:50 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Ok fine. I just hate Sinclair Lewis's Main Street. Go with On the Banks is Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder instead!
posted by Gray Duck at 6:50 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
For Connecticut, I think The Witch of Blackbird Pond. It’s YA and Colonial- era but in many ways the social dynamics have not changed.
posted by janell at 6:54 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by janell at 6:54 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
For Florida, Killing Mr. Watson by Peter Matthiessen.
posted by hovizette at 6:58 PM on October 12, 2022
posted by hovizette at 6:58 PM on October 12, 2022
My genre is showing, but since you said that's fine:
Minnesota:
War for the Oaks (Emma Bull, fantasy, 80s music scene in Minneapolis)
Tam Lin (Pamela Dean, fantasy, the college is more of the focus rather than the state, but the way she describes seasons really works for me)
Louise Erdrich's newest book The Sentence is also set in Minneapolis.
Washington, D.C.:
Waking the Moon (Elizabeth Hand, nonpolitical - or is it? - mythic mystery fantasy?)
Colorado:
Smart Women (Judy Blume, set in Boulder, very 80s, I'm sensing a theme with my recs here)
posted by pepper bird at 7:00 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
Minnesota:
War for the Oaks (Emma Bull, fantasy, 80s music scene in Minneapolis)
Tam Lin (Pamela Dean, fantasy, the college is more of the focus rather than the state, but the way she describes seasons really works for me)
Louise Erdrich's newest book The Sentence is also set in Minneapolis.
Washington, D.C.:
Waking the Moon (Elizabeth Hand, nonpolitical - or is it? - mythic mystery fantasy?)
Colorado:
Smart Women (Judy Blume, set in Boulder, very 80s, I'm sensing a theme with my recs here)
posted by pepper bird at 7:00 PM on October 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
Okay, I admit, I don't exactly like Main Street either.
I live in Minnesota, and seriously my favorite Minnesota novels are The Wolf's Trail: An Ojibwe Story, Told by Wolves, by Thomas D. Peacock, the Land of Dreams by Vidar Sundstøl and The Center of Winter, by Marya Hornbacher.
posted by RedEmma at 7:00 PM on October 12, 2022
I live in Minnesota, and seriously my favorite Minnesota novels are The Wolf's Trail: An Ojibwe Story, Told by Wolves, by Thomas D. Peacock, the Land of Dreams by Vidar Sundstøl and The Center of Winter, by Marya Hornbacher.
posted by RedEmma at 7:00 PM on October 12, 2022
Another Oregon candidate would be Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter. But I love Sometimes a Great Notion. Never give a inch!
posted by perhapses at 7:14 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by perhapses at 7:14 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Minnesota: Marcie Rendon has a 3 book series about a young native woman, Cash Blackbear, who helps out her local police officer friend solve crimes. It takes place in the late 70s and early 80s. It may sound like a cozy mystery series, but it is not. There is drinking, smoking (it was the 70s after all) and characters have consensual sex.
Rendon addresses the foster care system placing native kids in white homes; trafficking; and in the latest book, the entire crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women. Her cop friend helped her out after her a car accident with her mother when she was a child, and kept an eye on her while she was in the foster care system. Now he checks in on her between her pool tournaments and classes at the local college.
posted by soelo at 7:19 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Rendon addresses the foster care system placing native kids in white homes; trafficking; and in the latest book, the entire crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women. Her cop friend helped her out after her a car accident with her mother when she was a child, and kept an eye on her while she was in the foster care system. Now he checks in on her between her pool tournaments and classes at the local college.
posted by soelo at 7:19 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Washington:, Another Roadside Attraction, by Tom Robbins. As I remember it evokes a fictional but specific part of the state north of Everett and south of Bellingham.
posted by lhauser at 7:21 PM on October 12, 2022
posted by lhauser at 7:21 PM on October 12, 2022
If you have issues with a particular state, you might look into a cozy mystery series (literally just searching "idaho mystery series"). The stories are often short and even though they are a series, most are readable as a single story. They will also have a corny name with a pun in it.
posted by soelo at 7:22 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by soelo at 7:22 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Other places with similar challenges:
Storygraph
Goodreads
posted by soelo at 7:26 PM on October 12, 2022
Storygraph
Goodreads
posted by soelo at 7:26 PM on October 12, 2022
For Connecticut, I think The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
Nononono - you want something like Revolutionary Road or The Man In The Gray Flannell Suit or The Ice Storm, something where you've got people in suburbia going slowly mad with conventional lives. The Stepford Wives was set in Connecticut too.
Or you could go really weird for Connecticut and go with Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi; it's a post-apocalyptic novel which is set several years after some kind of ecological disaster poisoned some of the air, and the wealthy people moved off-world onto space colonies and left the poor people behind; but now it's several years later, the poison is starting to abate, and the hipster children and grandchildren of the space colonists are moving back down into places on Earth because of the cheap rent and setting up coffee shops and why yes, it IS a bald-face metaphor for gentrification. It's set in New Haven, and there are references to other spots in Connecticut that made me appreciate it a tiny bit more than did the rest of my book club.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:15 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Nononono - you want something like Revolutionary Road or The Man In The Gray Flannell Suit or The Ice Storm, something where you've got people in suburbia going slowly mad with conventional lives. The Stepford Wives was set in Connecticut too.
Or you could go really weird for Connecticut and go with Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi; it's a post-apocalyptic novel which is set several years after some kind of ecological disaster poisoned some of the air, and the wealthy people moved off-world onto space colonies and left the poor people behind; but now it's several years later, the poison is starting to abate, and the hipster children and grandchildren of the space colonists are moving back down into places on Earth because of the cheap rent and setting up coffee shops and why yes, it IS a bald-face metaphor for gentrification. It's set in New Haven, and there are references to other spots in Connecticut that made me appreciate it a tiny bit more than did the rest of my book club.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:15 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
For Colorado: Sabrina & Corina, by Kali Fajardo-Anstine! Short stories that are infused with a sense of place.
posted by sugarbomb at 9:54 PM on October 12, 2022
posted by sugarbomb at 9:54 PM on October 12, 2022
Another Maine: Empire Falls by Richard Russo
And it doesn't look like you have a Kansas yet, maybe In Cold Blood.
posted by missmobtown at 10:06 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
And it doesn't look like you have a Kansas yet, maybe In Cold Blood.
posted by missmobtown at 10:06 PM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Tried to get a whole list togerher, split between canon, populist choices, and over looked gems. I dont read a lot of SF, so it's absent from that. Tried also to give priority to non white or non male authors.
Alabama Fried Green Tomatoes Flagg
Alaska Strong Man: a Tlingit story Ishmael Hope
Arizona Maybe a HIllerman?
Arkansas I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Angelou
California The Sell out Paul Beatty
Colorado On the Road Keuroac
Connecticut On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' Ocean Vuong
Delaware The Underground Railroad Whitehead
Florida There Eyes Were Watching God Hurston
Georgia A Colour Purple Walker or Wind Done Gone Randall
Hawaii This is PAradise Kristiana Kahakauwila
Idaho Housekeeping Robinson
Illinois Ordinary People
Indiana The Magnificent Ambersons
Iowa A Thousand Acres Smiley
Kansas In COld Blood Capote
Kentucky Beloved Morrison
Louisiana The Awkaening Chopin
Maine Cider House Rules Irving
Maryland Accidental Tourist Tyler
Massachusetts THe Bostonians James
Michigan Daddy Cool Goines
Minnesota Mainstreet Lewis
Mississippi As I LAy Dying Faulkner
Missouri Huck Finn
Montana Winter in the Blood Welch
Nebraska My Atonia Cather
Nevada Desert of the Hearts Rule
New Hampshire Peyton Place by Grace Metalious.
New Jersey Are You There God, It's Me Margaet Bloom
New Mexico Cermony Silko
New York Age of Innoence Wharton
North Carolina Marrow of Tradition Chestnutt
North Dakota The Master Butcher's Singing Club Elrdich
Ohio Winesberg Ohio Anderson
Oklahoma True Grit Portis
Oregon Sometimes A Great Notion
Pennsylvania Appointment in Samara O Hara
Rhode Island The Lowland LAhiri
South Carolina Bastard Out of Carolina
South Dakota Inland Murane
Tennessee A DEath in the Family Agee
Texas Billy Lynn's Long Time Walk
Utah The Giant Joshua Whipple
Vermont A Secret History Tart
Virginia The Virginian
Washington The Absoutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian Alexie
West Virginia Storming Heaven Giardiana
Wisconsin All Flesh Is Grass
Wyoming Corralled Lorelei James
posted by PinkMoose at 10:28 PM on October 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
Alabama Fried Green Tomatoes Flagg
Alaska Strong Man: a Tlingit story Ishmael Hope
Arizona Maybe a HIllerman?
Arkansas I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Angelou
California The Sell out Paul Beatty
Colorado On the Road Keuroac
Connecticut On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' Ocean Vuong
Delaware The Underground Railroad Whitehead
Florida There Eyes Were Watching God Hurston
Georgia A Colour Purple Walker or Wind Done Gone Randall
Hawaii This is PAradise Kristiana Kahakauwila
Idaho Housekeeping Robinson
Illinois Ordinary People
Indiana The Magnificent Ambersons
Iowa A Thousand Acres Smiley
Kansas In COld Blood Capote
Kentucky Beloved Morrison
Louisiana The Awkaening Chopin
Maine Cider House Rules Irving
Maryland Accidental Tourist Tyler
Massachusetts THe Bostonians James
Michigan Daddy Cool Goines
Minnesota Mainstreet Lewis
Mississippi As I LAy Dying Faulkner
Missouri Huck Finn
Montana Winter in the Blood Welch
Nebraska My Atonia Cather
Nevada Desert of the Hearts Rule
New Hampshire Peyton Place by Grace Metalious.
New Jersey Are You There God, It's Me Margaet Bloom
New Mexico Cermony Silko
New York Age of Innoence Wharton
North Carolina Marrow of Tradition Chestnutt
North Dakota The Master Butcher's Singing Club Elrdich
Ohio Winesberg Ohio Anderson
Oklahoma True Grit Portis
Oregon Sometimes A Great Notion
Pennsylvania Appointment in Samara O Hara
Rhode Island The Lowland LAhiri
South Carolina Bastard Out of Carolina
South Dakota Inland Murane
Tennessee A DEath in the Family Agee
Texas Billy Lynn's Long Time Walk
Utah The Giant Joshua Whipple
Vermont A Secret History Tart
Virginia The Virginian
Washington The Absoutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian Alexie
West Virginia Storming Heaven Giardiana
Wisconsin All Flesh Is Grass
Wyoming Corralled Lorelei James
posted by PinkMoose at 10:28 PM on October 12, 2022 [6 favorites]
Inherent Vice comes to mind. Not so much California as LA specifically but it is definitely a character
posted by mmc at 11:37 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by mmc at 11:37 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
I see that you already have suggestions for Virginia, and that one of them is the forthcoming Barbara Kingsolver, but I'm still going to offer her earlier work Prodigal Summer, a book I loved so much that I used to have two copies in order to lend one to people.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 12:40 AM on October 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 12:40 AM on October 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
For Rhode Island - The Witches of Eastwick
For Connecticut [...] you want something like Revolutionary Road or The Man In The Gray Flannell Suit or The Ice Storm [...]
I haven't read Revolutionary Road but I think the other two are set in Westchester (NY).
posted by Mchelly at 4:43 AM on October 13, 2022
For Connecticut [...] you want something like Revolutionary Road or The Man In The Gray Flannell Suit or The Ice Storm [...]
I haven't read Revolutionary Road but I think the other two are set in Westchester (NY).
posted by Mchelly at 4:43 AM on October 13, 2022
Virginia The Virginian
... is set in Wyoming.
posted by basalganglia at 6:01 AM on October 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
... is set in Wyoming.
posted by basalganglia at 6:01 AM on October 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
Ooh, Rainbow Rowell is also good for Nebraska, specifically Lincoln and Omaha.
posted by pepper bird at 6:03 AM on October 13, 2022
posted by pepper bird at 6:03 AM on October 13, 2022
> For Connecticut [...] you want something like Revolutionary Road or The Man In The Gray Flannell Suit or The Ice Storm [...]
I haven't read Revolutionary Road but I think the other two are set in Westchester (NY).
Ice Storm is set in New Canaan, CT, and Man In The Grey Flannell Suit is set in Westport, CT.
I mean, yeah, those towns are both in the part of Connecticut that's effectively a sixth borough of NYC, but still.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:04 AM on October 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
I haven't read Revolutionary Road but I think the other two are set in Westchester (NY).
Ice Storm is set in New Canaan, CT, and Man In The Grey Flannell Suit is set in Westport, CT.
I mean, yeah, those towns are both in the part of Connecticut that's effectively a sixth borough of NYC, but still.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:04 AM on October 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Florida - Swamplandia by Karen Russell
New York (upstate) - The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff (or Arcadia or Fates and Furies)
Vermont - The Secret History - Donna Tartt
posted by carrioncomfort at 6:29 AM on October 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
New York (upstate) - The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff (or Arcadia or Fates and Furies)
Vermont - The Secret History - Donna Tartt
posted by carrioncomfort at 6:29 AM on October 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
Several of Richard Ford’s works are set in the fictional town of Haddam, New Jersey. The town, said to be an amalgam of Princeton, Pennington, and Lawrenceville, is home to Frank Bascombe, the title character in Ford’s 1986 novel “The Sportswriter.” Bascombe and Haddam return in “Independence Day” (1995), for which Ford won the Pulitzer in 1996, and “Let Me Be Frank With You” (2014), in which Bascombe has returned from a stint living at the Jersey Shore in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
posted by SomethinsWrong at 6:43 AM on October 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by SomethinsWrong at 6:43 AM on October 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
I used to work with a native Coloradan and she always said Kent Haruf's Plainsong was the best Colorado novel, in case the Stephen King vs. James Michener debate cannot be settled.
posted by jabes at 7:00 AM on October 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by jabes at 7:00 AM on October 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
Wyoming is Annie Proulx's fictional stomping grounds and oh boy can she ever stomp.
posted by flabdablet at 7:25 AM on October 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 7:25 AM on October 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
I could not for the life of me remember the name of Inherent Vice so thanks mmc - but wow yeah that is a (Southern) California novel for sure.
Also agree about Swamplandia being a very Florida story.
posted by radioamy at 9:09 AM on October 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also agree about Swamplandia being a very Florida story.
posted by radioamy at 9:09 AM on October 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem is pretty great (New York, NYC)
posted by lalochezia at 9:45 AM on October 13, 2022
posted by lalochezia at 9:45 AM on October 13, 2022
Maryland's busy authors, Laura Lippman and Anne Tyler, have a lot of books set in Maryland to choose from. Laura's book, Lady in the Lake, is currently being made into a limited series.
In case anyone else is okay with non-fiction, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot), Homicide (David Simon - happens to be married to Laura Lippman), The Other Wes Moore (Wes Moore - running for Governor), and We Own This City (Justin Fenton), are all excellent books.
posted by maxg94 at 10:59 AM on October 13, 2022
In case anyone else is okay with non-fiction, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot), Homicide (David Simon - happens to be married to Laura Lippman), The Other Wes Moore (Wes Moore - running for Governor), and We Own This City (Justin Fenton), are all excellent books.
posted by maxg94 at 10:59 AM on October 13, 2022
Response by poster: This is absolutely amazing and I’m so grateful for this well-read community. Nowhere else on the internet could I get recommendations of this quality. I will be putting every rec into a Google doc and will update here when I do so. Thanks y’all! Keep ‘em coming!
posted by tatiana wishbone at 11:36 AM on October 13, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by tatiana wishbone at 11:36 AM on October 13, 2022 [7 favorites]
I'm biased for southwestern Pennsylvania, but there's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.
posted by booth at 12:24 PM on October 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by booth at 12:24 PM on October 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
Tennessee, Suttree
North Carolina: I am required by law as a former Ashevillein to recommend Look Homeward Angel but I hate it. Instead I will suggest almost anything by Ron Rash, Clyde Edgerton, or, for mysteries, Margaret Maron. South Carolina, going to second Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison for upstate and Pat Conroy for the lowcountry. And for my adopted home of the Oregon coast (very specifically the coast) a lovely lesser known Ursula Le Guin, Searoad. For the rest of Oregon, So the WInd Won't Blow It All Away by Richard Brautigan, which I saw recommended as the quintessential Oregon book somewhere and thus read. It really is great.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:53 PM on October 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
North Carolina: I am required by law as a former Ashevillein to recommend Look Homeward Angel but I hate it. Instead I will suggest almost anything by Ron Rash, Clyde Edgerton, or, for mysteries, Margaret Maron. South Carolina, going to second Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison for upstate and Pat Conroy for the lowcountry. And for my adopted home of the Oregon coast (very specifically the coast) a lovely lesser known Ursula Le Guin, Searoad. For the rest of Oregon, So the WInd Won't Blow It All Away by Richard Brautigan, which I saw recommended as the quintessential Oregon book somewhere and thus read. It really is great.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:53 PM on October 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Oh and I never lived in California but Tim Powers is to me the quintessential California writer after Steinbeck.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:57 PM on October 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:57 PM on October 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
Some states are just glutted with great books. Mississippi is just off the charts. I could go forever in that direction, but allow me to add Kiese Laymon's Long Division and Percival Everett's The Trees to the already growing list.
Here are some other states and thoughts . . .
Alaska: Drop City--TC Boyle/ The Snow Child--Eowyn Ivey
Arizona: Almanac of the Dead--Leslie Marmon Silko
Arkansas: (It's really hard not to cheat and put Daniel Woodrell--Winter's Bone, The Maid's Version--here, but technically he's the Missouri side of the Ozarks)
California: Mildred Pierce--James M. Cain/The Sellout--Paul Beatty/Inherent Vice--Thomas Pynchon/The White Album--Joan Didion/Eve's Hollywood--Eve Babitz . . . etc, etc, etc,
Colorado: Butcher's Crossing--John Williams, Song of the Lark--Willa Cather
Connecticut: Revolutionary Road--Richard Yates, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous--Ocean Vuong, The Witch of Blackbird Pond was one of my favorite childhood books, but I have no idea if it holds up these days.
Delaware: Book of Unknown Americans--Cristina Henriquez
Florida: Swamplandia--Karen Russell, Shadow Country--Peter Mathiesson, Out of Sight--Elmore Leonard, Their Eyes Were Watching God--Zora Neale Hurston, The Nickel Boys--Colson Whitehead, Elect Mr Robinson for a Better World--Donald Antrim, Annihilation--Jeff Van Der Meer, etc, etc,
Georgia: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter--Carson McCullers, A Good Man is Hard to Find--Flannery O'Connor, The Color Purple--Alice Walker, The Gospel Singer--Harry Crews
Hawaii: Sharks in the Time of Saviors--Kawai Strong Washburn
Idaho: Housekeeping--Marilynne Robinson. And technically non-fiction, but I'm still haunted by Timothy Egan's The Big Burn
Illinois: Adventures of Augie March--Saul Bellow, Native Son--Richard Wright, The Great Believers--Rebecca Makkai, So Big--Edna Ferber
Indiana--The Magnificent Ambersons--Booth Tarkington Booth
Iowa--The End of Vandalism--Tom Drury, Gilead--Marilynne Robinson
Kansas--The Wizard of Oz--L Frank Baum, The Topeka School--Ben Lerner
Kentucky--A Sport of Kings-C. E. Morgan, Patron Saint of Liars--Ann Patchett,
Louisiana--The Moviegoer--Walker Percy, All The King's Men--Robert Penn Warren, The Yellow House--Sarah Broom, The Awakening--Kate Chopin, Sing Unburied Sing--Jessamyn Ward, etc,
Maine--The temptation is to cede this to Stephen King, but also Olive Kitteridge--Elizabeth Strout, Empire Falls--Richard Russo
Maryland: The Sot Weed Factor--John Barth
(I have a meeting, I can probably get to the other half in a bit)
posted by thivaia at 2:04 PM on October 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
Here are some other states and thoughts . . .
Alaska: Drop City--TC Boyle/ The Snow Child--Eowyn Ivey
Arizona: Almanac of the Dead--Leslie Marmon Silko
Arkansas: (It's really hard not to cheat and put Daniel Woodrell--Winter's Bone, The Maid's Version--here, but technically he's the Missouri side of the Ozarks)
California: Mildred Pierce--James M. Cain/The Sellout--Paul Beatty/Inherent Vice--Thomas Pynchon/The White Album--Joan Didion/Eve's Hollywood--Eve Babitz . . . etc, etc, etc,
Colorado: Butcher's Crossing--John Williams, Song of the Lark--Willa Cather
Connecticut: Revolutionary Road--Richard Yates, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous--Ocean Vuong, The Witch of Blackbird Pond was one of my favorite childhood books, but I have no idea if it holds up these days.
Delaware: Book of Unknown Americans--Cristina Henriquez
Florida: Swamplandia--Karen Russell, Shadow Country--Peter Mathiesson, Out of Sight--Elmore Leonard, Their Eyes Were Watching God--Zora Neale Hurston, The Nickel Boys--Colson Whitehead, Elect Mr Robinson for a Better World--Donald Antrim, Annihilation--Jeff Van Der Meer, etc, etc,
Georgia: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter--Carson McCullers, A Good Man is Hard to Find--Flannery O'Connor, The Color Purple--Alice Walker, The Gospel Singer--Harry Crews
Hawaii: Sharks in the Time of Saviors--Kawai Strong Washburn
Idaho: Housekeeping--Marilynne Robinson. And technically non-fiction, but I'm still haunted by Timothy Egan's The Big Burn
Illinois: Adventures of Augie March--Saul Bellow, Native Son--Richard Wright, The Great Believers--Rebecca Makkai, So Big--Edna Ferber
Indiana--The Magnificent Ambersons--Booth Tarkington Booth
Iowa--The End of Vandalism--Tom Drury, Gilead--Marilynne Robinson
Kansas--The Wizard of Oz--L Frank Baum, The Topeka School--Ben Lerner
Kentucky--A Sport of Kings-C. E. Morgan, Patron Saint of Liars--Ann Patchett,
Louisiana--The Moviegoer--Walker Percy, All The King's Men--Robert Penn Warren, The Yellow House--Sarah Broom, The Awakening--Kate Chopin, Sing Unburied Sing--Jessamyn Ward, etc,
Maine--The temptation is to cede this to Stephen King, but also Olive Kitteridge--Elizabeth Strout, Empire Falls--Richard Russo
Maryland: The Sot Weed Factor--John Barth
(I have a meeting, I can probably get to the other half in a bit)
posted by thivaia at 2:04 PM on October 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
For something Colorado not Stephen King or Kerouac, Peter Heller's The Dog Stars.
posted by cyndigo at 4:49 PM on October 13, 2022
posted by cyndigo at 4:49 PM on October 13, 2022
Oh, an interesting point about Connecticut - there's actually two Connecticuts, there's the southwestern part where a lot of Wall Street/New York City white-collar workers live, where you'll find stories like Revolutionary Road and Man In The Gray Flannel Suit. But then the eastern part of the state is this seriously weird sort of nowhere place - historically it was the site of a lot of textile mills and such in the 1800s, but those all went bust in the late 20th Century, and it took a while to recover. It's sort of like a weird hybrid between Stephen King's Maine and all those suburban White Collar Angst books; you've got the economic depression of other failed New England mill towns, but with some economic relief from the western part of the state.
I'm from that part of Connecticut, and honestly, the thing that best captured the feel of that part of the state was a TV show - Northern Exposure's depiction of Quirky Small Town Alaska feels exactly like my own hometown in some weird way I can't explain. But there is an author from that part of Connecticut whose work may be worth exploring - Wally Lamb lives about a half hours' drive from where I grew up, and got his start writing short stories that occasionally appeared in the Hartford Courant Sunday supplement when I was a teenager. Some of his works have started featuring a fictional town called "Three Rivers, CT" which sounds a little like Eastern Connecticut; so far, books set in Three Rivers include I Know This Much Is True, We Are Water, The Hour I First Believed, and Wishin' And Hopin', which even got made into a Lifetime movie filmed in Eastern Connecticut (in both his and my hometowns).
So one of Wally Lamb's "Three Rivers" books compared with The Ice Storm may make for an interesting exercise as far as Connecticut goes.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:14 AM on October 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm from that part of Connecticut, and honestly, the thing that best captured the feel of that part of the state was a TV show - Northern Exposure's depiction of Quirky Small Town Alaska feels exactly like my own hometown in some weird way I can't explain. But there is an author from that part of Connecticut whose work may be worth exploring - Wally Lamb lives about a half hours' drive from where I grew up, and got his start writing short stories that occasionally appeared in the Hartford Courant Sunday supplement when I was a teenager. Some of his works have started featuring a fictional town called "Three Rivers, CT" which sounds a little like Eastern Connecticut; so far, books set in Three Rivers include I Know This Much Is True, We Are Water, The Hour I First Believed, and Wishin' And Hopin', which even got made into a Lifetime movie filmed in Eastern Connecticut (in both his and my hometowns).
So one of Wally Lamb's "Three Rivers" books compared with The Ice Storm may make for an interesting exercise as far as Connecticut goes.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:14 AM on October 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
‘Ice water Mansions’ by Doug Allyn set in Michigan.
posted by Gadgetenvy at 1:22 PM on October 14, 2022
posted by Gadgetenvy at 1:22 PM on October 14, 2022
For Minnesota, Staggerford is a charming novel.
Seconding Love Medicine by Lousie Erdrich, mentioned above. It's a gorgeous book. Everyone should read it.
posted by triggerfinger at 2:22 PM on October 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Seconding Love Medicine by Lousie Erdrich, mentioned above. It's a gorgeous book. Everyone should read it.
posted by triggerfinger at 2:22 PM on October 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Fabulous question. Bowlaway, by Elizabeth McCracken, is excellent and extremely Massachusetts. (I mean: candlepin.)
posted by ann_disaster at 4:30 PM on October 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ann_disaster at 4:30 PM on October 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Home Town by Tracy Kidder perfectly described my life in Northampton, Massachusetts in the 1990s down to descriptions of people I saw regularly on the street.
posted by bendy at 10:46 PM on October 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by bendy at 10:46 PM on October 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Strongly seconding Tracy Kidder's Home Town—it doesn't really get Massachussetts, since Northampton is to MA as Berkeley is to CA, but boy does it get Northampton. And yes DC isn't (yet) a state, but Edward P. Jones (mentioned above) and the Derek Strange and Dimitri Karras crime novels by George Pelecanos are spot-on (The Sweet Forever, set in the crack explosion of 1986, is my personal favorite).
As this thread strongly implies, any fictional geographies are geographies of time as well as place.
posted by vitia at 11:14 AM on October 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
As this thread strongly implies, any fictional geographies are geographies of time as well as place.
posted by vitia at 11:14 AM on October 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Georgia: A Man In Full, although I think it would be fair to split Georgia into "Atlanta" and "not Atlanta". (A Man in Full is Atlanta.)
posted by madcaptenor at 12:45 PM on October 16, 2022
posted by madcaptenor at 12:45 PM on October 16, 2022
You need more Michigan options. I always felt Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis, really captured the state. It's YA, so fairly short.
posted by Tesseractive at 1:54 PM on October 16, 2022
posted by Tesseractive at 1:54 PM on October 16, 2022
Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy, for New York State.
posted by jgirl at 8:58 AM on October 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by jgirl at 8:58 AM on October 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Harold Bell Wright's Shepherd of the Hills drove an early wave of tourism to southern Missouri. Arguably, it's what led the Branson area to be the tourist powerhouse it still is.
posted by Scienxe at 11:39 AM on October 17, 2022
posted by Scienxe at 11:39 AM on October 17, 2022
Earl Hamner's Spencer's Mountain for Virginia.
The movie was set in Wyoming, and TV's The Waltons went back to Virginia.
It's a great book, with not much resemblance to the series.
posted by jgirl at 2:05 PM on October 17, 2022
The movie was set in Wyoming, and TV's The Waltons went back to Virginia.
It's a great book, with not much resemblance to the series.
posted by jgirl at 2:05 PM on October 17, 2022
Utah:
The Great Brain (and sequels) - John Dennis Fitzgerald
Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey
Silver Canyon - Louis L'Amour
posted by krieghund at 12:44 PM on October 19, 2022
The Great Brain (and sequels) - John Dennis Fitzgerald
Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey
Silver Canyon - Louis L'Amour
posted by krieghund at 12:44 PM on October 19, 2022
Michigan: Brown Dog by Jim Harrison really brings to life the Upper Peninsula landscape.
Florida: Cross Creek or The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings for early rural Florida (also nthing Zora Neale Hurston)
New York: (Harlem) The Street by Ann Petry
posted by amusebuche at 3:18 PM on October 20, 2022
Florida: Cross Creek or The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings for early rural Florida (also nthing Zora Neale Hurston)
New York: (Harlem) The Street by Ann Petry
posted by amusebuche at 3:18 PM on October 20, 2022
There is an argument that Gatsby's joint was really in Connecticut. Judge for yourself.
posted by BWA at 4:47 PM on October 20, 2022
posted by BWA at 4:47 PM on October 20, 2022
Thanks, amusebuche: I was about to mention "Brown Dog". Since you mentioned that, no Michigan list is going to be complete without Elmore Leonard, so "City Primeeval".
posted by acrasis at 6:47 PM on October 26, 2022
posted by acrasis at 6:47 PM on October 26, 2022
I just finished In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume, which, like many of her other novels, is a great pick for New Jersey.
posted by Fuego at 6:59 AM on October 27, 2022
posted by Fuego at 6:59 AM on October 27, 2022
Oregon: although the perpetually doomed and dangerous timber industry is one part of Oregon's self-image, I would spurn that "Sometimes a Great Notion" vision of Oregon in favor of Beverly Cleary's Beezus and Ramona books set in Portland. Still sometimes hardscrabble, but more optimistic.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 6:27 PM on November 7, 2022
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 6:27 PM on November 7, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jabes at 1:42 PM on October 12, 2022 [11 favorites]