{"product_id":"interior-states-essays-9780525562702","title":"Interior States: Essays","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of \u003ci\u003eThe Believer\u003c\/i\u003e Book Award for Nonfiction\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Meghan O'Gieblyn's deep and searching essays are written with a precise sort of skepticism and a slight ache in the heart. A first-rate and riveting collection.\" \u003cbr\u003e--Lorrie Moore \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA fresh, acute, and even profound collection that centers around two core (and related) issues of American identity: faith, in general and the specific forms Christianity takes in particular; and the challenges of living in the Midwest when culture is felt to be elsewhere. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat does it mean to be a believing Christian and a Midwesterner in an increasingly secular America where the cultural capital is retreating to both coasts? The critic and essayist Meghan O'Gieblyn was born into an evangelical family, attended the famed Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for a time before she had a crisis of belief, and still lives in the Midwest, aka \"Flyover Country.\" She writes of her \"existential dizziness, a sense that the rest of the world is moving while you remain still,\" and that rich sense of ambivalence and internal division inform the fifteen superbly thoughtful and ironic essays in this collection. The subjects of these essays range from the rebranding (as it were) of Hell in contemporary Christian culture (\"Hell\"), a theme park devoted to the concept of intelligent design (\"Species of Origin\"), the paradoxes of Christian Rock (\"Sniffing Glue\"), Henry Ford's reconstructed pioneer town of Greenfield Village and its mixed messages (\"Midwest World\"), and the strange convergences of Christian eschatology and the digital so-called Singularity (\"Ghosts in the Cloud\"). Meghan O'Gieblyn stands in relation to her native Midwest as Joan Didion stands in relation to California - which is to say a whole-hearted lover, albeit one riven with ambivalence at the same time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Anchor Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/09\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780525562702\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.50lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.70d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/01\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/27\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/15\/2018 pg. 62\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/15\/2018 pg. 5\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Meghan O'Gieblyn","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42916922720437,"sku":"9780525562702","price":15.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_48f02e31-e698-4982-9031-cd548a87f2a3.jpg?v=1687273795","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/interior-states-essays-9780525562702","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}