The Best American Essays 1992 [Paperback]

Robert Atwan (Editor), Susan Sontag (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 1992 | Series: Best American Essays

Hailed as the single most distinguished showcase for essays, The Best American Essays exhibits the finest writing from magazines and journals across the country. This year Susan Sontag has collected an extraordinary range of talent that includes such notables as Joan Didion, John Updike, Jamaica Kincaid, and Stanley Elkin.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Edited by Sontag ( The Volcano Lover ), this collection amply demonstrates the diversity of subject matter that stimulates contemporary essayists. Adam Gopnik traces John James Audubon's self-transformation from French emigre dilettante to American woodsman; John Updike probes the persistence of the Mickey Mouse icon; E. L. Doctorow tries to fathom the mysteries of songs, which "have the capacity to represent in their lyrics and lines of melody wars and other disasters, moral process, the fruits of experience, and, like prayers, the consolations beyond loss"; Stanley Elkin contends that Hamlet and the Mona Lisa are overrated masterpieces; and John Guillory discusses the difference between the literary canon and the classroom syllabus. This collection is uneven. Low points include Patricia Storace's critique of a lackluster biography of the mediocre, probably racist Gone with the Wind author Margaret Mitchell and Jamaica Kincaid's shriek against everything English. Highlights include Joan Didion's dissection of the Central Park jogger rape case's hold on the New York psyche, and David Rieff's critique of the recovery movement (although the fact that he is Sontag's son should have on principle kept him out of this "best" collection).
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

As with previous volumes of this series, one could debate whether these 20 essays are indeed the year's best. Editor Sontag introduces the essay as "a display of intelligence" that offers "precision and clarity of argument and transparency of style." However, many of the essays here merely express opinion in convoluted form. Among the more interesting and readable pieces are William Gass's musings on the meaning of exile and Jamaica Kincaid's account, "On Seeing England for the First Time." Primarily of interest to academic libraries, most of which already have access through the periodicals from which these were drawn.
- Nancy Shires, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, N.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 275 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; First Edition edition (November 12, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395599369
• ISBN-13: 978-0395599365
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #592,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A waste, April 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Best American Essays 1992 (Hardcover)

Among the books in this series, this is probably the worst. Most essays are boring, repetitive, confuse. One gets the feeling that they were included not in reason of their merit but because of their controversial/political nature. A total waste.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, December 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Best American Essays 1992 (Hardcover)

the best in the series. as fascinating and arresting today as they were 10 years ago, almost all these essays astonish.