Customer Reviews

The Best American Magazine Writing 2006

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Compared to other "Best American..." collections of essays and other members of the family, this one is so-so. Some outstanding contributions and others that did absolutely nothing for me, especially the overly preachy, whiny types. I rather expect non-fiction in collections (rather unfair, I know), so Joyce Carol Oates' fine short story of fiction held its own, but felt a little out of place.

Don't be afraid to give up on or skim any articles that aren't to your liking.

My favorites:

- Marjorie Williams' story of her battle with cancer. Maybe I gave it extra points because I remember her work for the Washington Post. Even if so, truly outstanding, and now I need to read the book of collected works of hers.

- James Bamford's eye-opening and appalling story on the "selling" of the war.

- Wendy Brenner's profile of snake-meister and broadly talented Dean Ripa, someone I had never heard of.

- "The Last Outlaw" on Merle Haggard. I put this one off, thinking the subject wouldn't be very interesting. I was certainly wrong.

- "The Recruit" - try to come up with an interesting wrinkle on military recruiting, without being a polemicist or blatantly one-sided. Jesse Katz did, with his focus on a particular, unusual candidate on his way into the system.

Some comments on others:

- David Foster Wallace's piece from the Atlantic, with its clever, nested footnotes, was amusing. I'm an Atlantic subscriber, which made the piece familiar, plus it's not what I would have chosen as a representative from Atlantic.

- "Girl Meets Bluegill" - very sweet and short, sure to bring a smile to parents.

- "Upon This Rock" - maybe I should have figured this wouldn't be another piece making fun of Christians, since presumably it wouldn't have been fresh enough to be an award winner. Better than expected.

- "Death of a Mountain" - environmental topics appear multiple times in the collection. The destruction of land for coal mining in Kentucky skips the ranting about global issues and hits the other end: how devastating our energy demands can be to the local environment.

This compilation is like most of its genre: some of the pieces will intrigue you and compel you to read them; others won't and you can simply skip them. Of course, that list will vary from reader to reader. My personal cherry-pick of the book looked like this:

> 'Host' by David Foster Wallace - Always a delight to read Wallace's footnote-laden, obsessively-researched and minutely-detailed pieces.

> 'The Recruit' by Jesse Katz - A devastating portrait of an Army recruit and the recruiting process.

> 'The Man Who Sold the War' by James Bamford - A portrait of John Rendon; the title of the article says it all. Easy to see why this was awarded the title of 'Best reporting.' Jaw-dropping stuff.

> 'A Matter of Life and Death' by the Marjorie Williams - The author bravely chronicles her own battle with liver cancer.

> 'The Last Outlaw' by Chris Heath - I've never been a Merle Haggard fan...nor am I an anti-fan, but this is simply a spectacularly well-written profile. You get a real sense of Haggard's character. He comes across as personable and honest.

I order this collection every year as the editor does indeed choose what I consider the best magazine writing of the year. It is a good way to catch up on the articles you missed during the year. Good for airline reading.

How is it possible that these short stories, mostly about depression and navel contemplation, are ALL award winners? As with most anthologies, some of these stories are better than others. However, none are amazing -- this is hardly a collection of great short fiction. If you'd like to read some collections of interesting short stories (creative, thought-provoking...), I recommend the following books as far superior alternatives:

Matthew Kneale "Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance"

Judy Budnitz "Flying Leap"

John Barlow "Eating Mammals"

John Murray " A Few Notes on Tropical Butterflies