Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama

"Think of Alabama. OK – now think again. That’s what New Yorker writer Alexis Okeowo asks readers to do when they read her book Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama. To the often black-and-white framing of the state’s history Okeowo adds the dimension of the Nigerian immigrant experience. So, what does that do to the story of Alabama? Of the U.S.? She explores what it means to love a state some Americans are determined to loathe."