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Title: Best American Essays 2002 (Best American (TM)) by Stephen Jay Gould, Robert Atwan ISBN: 0-618-04932-0 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: a chance to have CANCERLAND essay by barbara ehenreich
Comment: this essay was printed in Harpers and isn't available ANY WHERE else but in this book. It is easier to buy this book than to look for an old issue of Harpers. This is the BEST essay on breast cancer imho. It is wise and perceptive and cuts through a lot of the pink stuff of breast cancer activism. elsa dorfman, NoHairDay collective. Cambridge, MA
Rating: 4
Summary: Thought provoking and absorbing
Comment: I had the false impression that the writing and thoughts in this year's Best American Essays would be overwhelmed by the events of September 11, but this book provides a lot of breadth and depth. Gould's selections are excellent; I can't think of a single essay here that does not have some kind of redeeming value. Jacques Barzun's The Tenth Muse and Mario Vargas Lhosa's "Why Literature?" are the requisite but eloquent pieces about the nature and necessity of art. Danielle Ofri's "Merced" is a standout piece: about how a young doctor learns about the fallibility of medicine through a patient's unsolvable illness. I disagree with the reviewers here who found Gore Vidal's "The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh" unworthy of inclusion in the volume; the essay shows another view on the perpetrator of the Oklahoma City bombing that warrants us to consider why some people commit acts of terror, though the piece ultimately fails when Vidal utilizes tired and trite anti government rhetoric. Nicholas Delblanco's "The Countess of Stanlein Restored" is an absorbing history of the origins and restoration of a Stradivarius cello. Adam Mayblum's "The Price We Pay" does not have the polish and pyrotechnics we expect from some of these essayists, but his straightforward telling of his escape from the World Trade towers on September 11 makes for a harrowing recounting of the events.
Rating: 4
Summary: still going strong
Comment: This year's installment of the Best American Essays is a great selection (but then aren't they always). It was one of the last projects Stephen Jay Gould finished before he died last May. Of course there are all kinds of arguments that can be made for and against certain selections being included and not included.
Three essays really got to me as the best of the bunch (and essays that I imagine I'll reread again and again in the future). The first is Franzen's essay on his father's decline in Alzheimer's. It's a touching essay that is well-written, humorous at times, and helps to understand the 'human' reaction to the disease. The other essays is Bernard Cooper's "Winner Take Nothing" which is a very funny interplay between a father and son who don't understand each other. I remember reading it in GQ, and thinking that this essay surely would be selected for the Best American series. Nicholas Delbanco's essay "The Countess of Stanlein Restored" is a wonderfully written essay that covers the history of violin making and the restoration of one of the more famous violins, and anyone who loves music will love this essay.
Barbara Ehrenreich has an essay discussing her ordeal with breast cancer, and what makes this essay so good is that it isn't all the hopefulness and joy you find in others of its type, rather she deals with the real emotions she felt-the bitterness. And with an almost tongue-in-cheek humor. Sebastion Junger has his 'typical' style essay dealing with the fight for freedom in Afganistan. It's well-written, like his work tends to be. Andrew Levy's essay on Robert Carter III shows why we don't know who Carter is-he just isn't quite interesting enough to write about. There's also an interesting essay by Danielle Ofri on one incident in her medical school training (this essay has convinced me to pick up her collection of memoir essays on med school). There's a great essay by Darryl Pinckney dealing with a middle-aged, middle-class black man getting busted for marijuana possession. It's funny and frightening at the same time. Typical New Yorker material though. Gore Vidal has an essay on McVeigh-which is at times well-written, but at other times borders on the paranoid and juvenile. It is an interesting read though. And the final essay of the collection is Wolfson's "Moonrise" which is another autobiographical essay dealing with the illness of a relative-this one of her son. It's a touching essay that fills the reader with sadness and joy.
Some of the weaker essays are: Jacques Barzun's "The Tenth Muse" which is part biography of Clifton Fadiman and part question on culture, but doesn't ever say anything. And there are the group of obligatory 9-11essays, though not the best I've seen. Amy Kolen has an extremely dull essay, "Fire," which I found so boring, I couldn't even finish it.
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Title: The Best American Short Stories 2002 by Sue Miller ISBN: 0618131736 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002 by Dave Eggers, Michael Cart ISBN: 0618246940 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Best American Magazine Writing 2002 by American Society of Magazine Editor ISBN: 0060515724 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Best American Essays 2001 by Kathleen Norris, Robert Atwan ISBN: 0618049312 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 10 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Best American Essays of the Century by Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Atwan ISBN: 0618155872 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 10 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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