This year's wonderfully diverse collection, which features such respected writers as Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, Ian Frazier, Mary Gordon, and Arthur Miller. These essays range widely across the American landscape -- from a California monastery to a Manhattan apartment -- and along the way introduce us to a fine array of talented new voices. Called by John Updike "the best essayist of my generation," Hoagland has assembled a powerful volume that vividly showcases the art and craft of the contemporary essay. IN SEARCH OF PROUST by Andre Aciman, TORCH SONG by Charles Bowden, COMPRESSION WOOD by Franklin Burroughs, VISITOR by Michael W. Cox, LAST WORDS by Joan Didion, FOR THE TIME BEING by Annie Dillard, THE METEORITES by Brian Doyle, A LOVELY SORT OF LOWER PURPOSE by Ian Frazier, VICTORIA by Dagoberto Gilb, STILL LIFE by Mary Gordon, A WEEK IN THE WORD by Patricia Hampl, THE COUNTRY BELOW by Barbara Hurd, THE LION AND ME by John Lahr, MAKING IT UP by Hilary Masters, ON THE FEDALA ROAD by John McNeel, AMERICAN HEARTWORM by Ben Metcalf, BEFORE AIR CONDITIONING by Arthur Miller, AFTER AMNESIA by Joyce Carol Oates, THE IMPIOUS IMPATIENCE OF JOB by Cynthia Ozick, PLANET OF WEEDS by David Quammen, ON SILENCE by Daisy Eunyoung Rhau, BEAUTY by Scott Russell Sanders, HITLER'S COUCH by Mark Slouka, WHAT'S INSIDE YOU, BROTHER? by Toure, FOLDING THE TIMES by W. S. Trow.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In his foreword to this 14th volume in the Best American Essays series, editor Atwan quotes Ezra Pound's axiom that "literature is news that stays news." At their best, these 25 essays exhibit style and content that may endure for a time. There are few salient themes, although family relationships and religious longing run through a handful of the works. Mary Gordon's "Still Life," a meditation on how the work of Pierre Bonnard provided her with "solace and refreshment" in dealing with her mother's painful senility, is a delicate but hard-headed examination of loss and fear. In "The Lion and Me," John Lahr recounts with bittersweet ambivalence the uneasy relationship his father, Bert Lahr, had with his most famous role, as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. Brian Doyle's "The Meteorites" is a moving and unsettling rumination on the nature of love through the eyes of a camp counselor to young boys. Cynthia Ozick's "The Impious Impatience of Job" and Annie Dillard's "For the Time Being" both deal with the quest for spiritual experience and attendant paradox. Some of the worksAsuch as Dagoberto Gilb's "Victoria" and Joan Didion's "Last Words"Aseem lightweight for a collection like this. In his introduction, Edward Hoagland notes that "essays are reappearing in unexpected places," although most of these pieces come from mainstream publications such as Harpers and the New Yorker. Perhaps if Hoagland had gone further afield, the collection would have offered more surprises. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
These two collections prove once again that the state of the essay in America is just fine, thank you, and in fact livelier and more diverse than ever, thank you very much. "Essays are how we speak to one another in print," Hoagland says in his introduction. The 25 speakers he has chosen include the familiar (Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, Ian Frazier, Mary Gordon, Arthur Miller, Joyce Carol Oates) and the not so well known (Michael Cox, Brian Doyle, John McNeel). They speak on subjects ranging from wonderfully metaphoric compression wood (Franklin Burroughs) to Job (Cynthia Ozick), from the Cowardly Lion father (John Lahr) to the senile mother (Mary Gordon), and from Proust (Andre Aciman) to Hemingway (Joan Didion). Hoagland's introduction, "Writers Afoot," is a gem. While Best American Essays traditionally presents the pieces alphabetically by author, Lopate's Art of the Essay pairs his 28 selections by theme. This is particularly effective with "seeing," where Erin McGraw holds her own up against Hoagland (yes, Lopate chose an essay by Hoagland called "I Can See" on his seeing, blindness, and sight restoration), apprenticeships (Thomas Bellar and the late Andre Dubus), andAsurprisinglyAreligion (Jonathan Rosen and Kathleen Norris). All academic and public libraries should have "The Best American Essays" series, and the price is right for supplementing this year's offering with The Art of the Essay.AMary Paumier Jones, Westminster P.L., CO
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Overlooked excellence,
By Emmett Miller (Burton, WA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Best American Essays 1999 (Paperback)
This is full of many great essays, all of them overlooked bits of excellent writing. My favorite is HITLER'S COUCH. Personal, historical, insightful, a prose poem about the tragic hellishness of this century and how it relates to the individual, without any self impressed "brilliance."
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another solid edition,
This review is from: The Best American Essays 1999 (Paperback)
Edward Hoagland has done a wonderful job in selecting a breadthof essays that radiate his and others various interests. The 1999essays takes us from the horrors of sexual abuse to the significance of Job to the beauty of "bogs." I particularly enjoyed David Quammen's "Planet of Weeds," an essay so compelling and upsetting that I sat shell-shocked after reading it. As usual, Ian Frazier impresses, and I particulary enjoyed Toure's "What's Inside You Brother?" My only disappointment is that the work doesn't have an essay from Hoagland; his modesty prevails.
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