Against Joie de Vivre: Personal Essays

I read few contemporary books, and would not have read this had my daughter not bought it for my birthday. I'm glad she did, as was she, since she has a hard time finding things a curmudgeon like myself will appreciate (see the essay "Against Joie de Vivre," which led her to believe I'd enjoy this book). Given the nature of the personal essay, which the author discusses in "What Happened to the Personal Essay?" there were of course some pieces I preferred to others. He stirred my interest, for example, in Montaigne and William Hazlitt, as progenitors of the personal essay, and reminded me of the pleasures I've gotten from Edmund Wilson, George Orwell, Seymour Krim, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, Calvin Trillin, Albert Camus, E.M. Cioran, Milan Kundera, C. Wright Mills, and Susan Sontag, to name a few of the other "personal essayists" he cites. On a more personal level--that is, having experienced similar situations and states of mind--I enjoyed "Never Live Above Your Landlord" and "Upstairs Neighbors" (living in Manhattan), and "... The 'Heroic' Age of Moviegoing" (the adventure of discovering, as a young man, foreign films when so-called art houses were in vogue). Other particular pleasures were Lopate's reflections upon "Modern Friendships," appearances ("On Shaving a Beard"), and the vulnerabilities of an author "Waiting for the Book to Come Out." And perhaps the most riveting piece: the author's experiences as a teacher, in "Chekhov for Children." I Think, Therefore Who Am I?

I had a range of reactions to the essays in this book. Some I really liked. Some I thought were alright. Some I didn't particularly care for.But "Chekhov for Children" is something quite different. The best single essay I have ever read (actually I have read it at least 5 times), it captures (and moves) me every time. If you work with kids, you need to read it. If you wonder if literature if important, you need to read it. If you like neither kids nor literature, you should still read it. Simply extraordinary.