“Thanksgiving is not just about gratitude,” the author writes in the book’s opening lines, continuing, “It’s about gravy, grudges, [and] group texts gone wrong.” With a chapter dedicated to each state (plus Washington, D.C.), Okine offers readers 51 short stories poking fun at America’s “most chaotic, carb-loaded, emotionally layered holiday.” None of the stories are longer that three to five pages—readers are dropped directly into dining rooms, living rooms, and outdoor turkey friers with little in terms of scene-setting, character development, or plot. The volume gently satirizes Thanksgiving culture and offers lighthearted commentary on regional absurdities; the material comes from personal experiences and anecdotes shared with the author by friends around the country. The opening story, set in Alabama, features a no-nonsense grandma who tells her sons to “behave, or eat in the truck,” a secret family sweet tea recipe, and the dramatic revelation that this year’s biscuits came from a can (“a culinary felony”). Minnesota’s chapter, alternately, highlights a “hotdish buffet” that includes a “controversial” tuna noodle casserole and a Jell-O salad made “with suspended grapes, marshmallows, and trauma.” The hypercritical Aunt Rhonda in Maryland’s chapter declares, in response to a plate of flavorless deviled eggs, that “If it ain’t got Old Bay, it ain’t got my attention,” and Alaska’s main character, the edgy Cousin Todd, describes a half-thawed pumpkin pie as “a metaphor for modern civilization.”
As reflected in the vignettes described above, the book leans heavily into the stereotypes that plague each state. In Kentucky’s chapter, for example, Thanksgiving “comes fried, filled, and a little unfiltered” (this piece features a bourbon-fueled conversation about a recent family wedding held at a Bass Pro Shop where the bride wore a camouflage wedding dress). Unsurprisingly, Idaho’s story revolves around a family dispute regarding potatoes (“Tater Tension”), Wisconsin’s includes a healthy assortment of beer, cheese, and brats, and the District of Columbia chapter revels in the art of diplomacy with a “Side of Scandal.” While the stories are somewhat lazy in their grasping at low-hanging comedic fruits, the anthology is never malicious in its consideration of America’s cultural quirks; the author openly admits that the stories are “exaggerated, and lovingly fictionalized.” Because the book covers all 50 states, the stories can be repetitive at times, as they all are essentially variations on the same handful of tropes: a food faux pas, a generational misunderstanding, an idiosyncratic family member, or a snide remark that blossoms into an extended argument. The brevity of each chapter similarly means that the characters are often inflated versions of a familiar assortment of feisty, sassy, jocular, emo, or eccentric relatives. The author of multiple satirical books on state-by-state peculiarities (on topics that span from grocery stores to pets), Okine has a firm grasp on the cultural specifics that divide Americans. Belying the book’s satirical approach to the uniquely American holiday, the author poignantly reminds readers that even though they may not always get along with family, Thanksgiving is “about showing up…Ready to love people who drive you nuts.”