The Best American Essays 1997

This edition is a wonderful collection of exciting creative nonfiction that pushes the boundaries of what we call the "essay." Anyone who thinks essays are boring should read "The Gangster We're All Looking For" and "The Fourth State of Matter" because these are anything but. If only more collections included beautiful and powerful work like this.

The 1997 Best American Essays is probably my favorite volume in the Best American Essay series. Ian Frazier did a superb job in selecting the essays in the volume. For anyone who is looking for satisfying essays to read, this volume would be the ideal one to choose. A reason perhaps why the essays were selected to be "the best" is that each one touches upon a common cord that readers can easily empathize with. Family, memory, history, and politics are the most obvious underlying themes that run through each essays that I picked up on. My favorite essays included: Hilton Als's "Notes on My Mother," Verlyn Klinkenborg's "We Are Still Only Human," Luc Sante's "Living In Tongues," and "Charles Simic's "Dinner at Uncle Boris's." The other essays are all equaly great.

I used to subscribe to Granta, New Yorker, Double Take, The Sun and other magazines but I found I really didn't have time for all of them. Best American Essays provides many of the same great reads in one volume. In the 1997 issue I particularly enjoyed Joy Williams "The Case Against Babies", and Paul Sheehan's essay "My Habit" is sheer genius. Each writing is wonderful though, and I often enjoy reading other works by the authors after I am introduced to their talents through the "Best Essays" series.