Barnstorming Ohio: To Understand America

Journalist and Akron native Giffels (coauthor, Wheels of Fortune) explores the qualities that make Ohio a bellwether for the rest of America in this trenchant mix of memoir, reportage, and political analysis. Noting Ohio’s record as the only state to have voted for every winning presidential candidate since 1964, Giffels traveled across the state in 2019 and early 2020 to gauge how its residents were faring in the lead-up to the next election. He interviews a “lifelong Democrat” who considers Trump’s presidency “the best thing that’s happened to America in a long time,” auto workers in shock after G.M. shut down its Lordstown plant, and a divorced single mom who took time off from her two jobs to attend the third annual Women’s March in Washington, D.C. Giffels also reflects on his son’s decision to become a paramedic in the midst of Ohio’s opioid epidemic, and infuses his social commentary with local color and memorable turns-of-phrase (travel mugs are “prime weaponry in any working parent’s arsenal”). Offering tea leaves rather than a crystal ball, Giffels doesn’t definitively answer the question that prompted his study: is America broken? Still, this nuanced and often lyrical account, which ends with Ohio “emerg[ing] as a beacon of leadership” during the coronavirus pandemic, offers a measure of hope. Agent: Daniel Greenberg, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. (Aug.)