Living Blue in the Red States

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Living Blue in the Red States David Starkey, Ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.

Starkey, a poet and professor of English, has put together an intriguing collection of essays. Each contributor is an experienced writer. In view of the "red-state/blue state" division that dominates political reporting-however overblown that dichotomy might be-his book is especially timely.

As with all collections, of course, the contents are uneven. In this case, happily, the unevenness has less to do with quality than with theme. Starkey is sensitive to the possibility of criticism about the coherence of themes involved, and provides us with an Afterword to deal with the …