The states where we live in can propel us on our most vivid tales. Each U.S. state is a unique seedbed of narrative.
Our home states remind us of nostalgic venues where we grew up, creating experiences that roll around in the memory like baseballs in the grassy fields of Little League days or beads of sweat collecting during August sunrises on Florida’s sugar-white beaches.
“You can think of each state as a little mind,” says author John Jeremiah Sullivan, who spent his childhood in Louisville and was tapped to capture Kentucky for the new book State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America. “And they’re all kind of bent in their own particular way.”
Or as New York Times reviewer J. R. Moehringer wrote:
“Americans still feel uniquely defined by whichever state they call home. … That familiar, multicolored map hanging in every grade-school classroom is a periodic table, setting out the 50 basic elements of our national character.”
What narrative does your home state evoke?
