For all the Midwest’s evenhandedness, much of it has been embittered by the recession, and the work ethic we’re known for, when without direction, becomes destructive. The literature of this Midwest shows this side of us, the hardened and hungry folk. It forgets, largely, the generous people I know they co-exist with.

If the Midwest is not surreal…it is made hyper-real [in its literature]…

The Millions : Bridge Across the Country: On the Literature of the Midwest.