Best Creative Nonfiction

At 326 pages and 28 essays, this is a generous collection of nonfiction, but I only found six essays that stood out enough to remark on. Yet, how how good those six are, they make the book as a whole worthwhile seeking out. Probably the best essay is "Moby-Duck" by Donovan Hohn. It's the longest in the book, comprising nearly 60 pages or 20% of the entire length. The pun on "Moby-Dick" is not just because of its length. Like in the novel, the essay is a weird hodgepodge of style and content, sometimes a straightforward journalism about ocean currents and the plastic derbies that floats in it, other-times existential angst on the modern human condition. It is one of the best nonfiction essays I've ever read, a nod to the literary greatness of `Moby-Dick`. There are two superb mini-biographies. The first, called "Pursuing The Great Bad Novelist" by Laura Sewell Matter, is about the Victorian romance novelist Charles Garvice (1850-1920), whom you have probably never heard of. The Wikipedia article on Garvis gives some background, but Laura's story about how she came to learn about him from a page leaf that washed up on the beach in Iceland is literary gold. The other min-biography is called "The Dangerous Joy of Dr.Sex" by Pagan Kennedy (an original piece, first published in this collection). It is about Alex Comfort, the stodgy English professor who was the unlikely author of the ever-popular 'The Joy of Sex'. His story is basically an encapsulation of the sexual revolution and how far and quickly things changed in a single lifetime. There are two psychology essays, the first "Instead of the Rat Pack" by Gwendolyn Knapp is about the authors mother who never throws things out and hoards stuff in her house to the point of excess requiring "active intervention." The other is a short web piece called "Shrinks Get It Wrong Sometimes" from ShrinktalkNet, about a patient who foresees his own death. Finally there is a true crime essay called "The Suicide/Murder? of Joseph Kupchick" by James Renner. It concerns a young man who apparently killed himself, but there are many clues to suggest it was actually murder. His father and mother become the lead investigators as the police and journalists write it off.

Lee Gutkind continues to find great new and interesting non-fiction writers. At first I thought I might be reading pieces done by college level writing classes. No way! These are polished extremely well written stories with a tremendous amount of variety. Often they are a bit of the authors own experiences and how others were part of the impact. Every author has a wealth of experience and these samplings are examples of their coming into their own.

Lee Gutkiond, who pulled together this remarkable collection, says the following in his introduction: "Creative nonfiction gives the writer more artistic freedom - not in regard to the truth, but in constructing the story." (p. xi) These tales are all based on the recounting of events through the lens of the teller; as such they bring in the writer's point of view, her descriptive take and her interaction with the characters involved. The first vignette I read, "Badlands: The Story of a Competitive Eater," got me hooked immediately. Check out "The Woot Files" on how our Internet slang derives from gamers back in the days of Atari -- or "The Answer That Increasingly Appeals," on a mother's search for the appropriate tribute to her daughter on the occasion of her daughter's Bat Mitzvah. All the emotions that accompany great fiction accosted me here, in the flights that the authors took from the facts to works of art. It's a superb book that highlights a new genre. Try it - even if you don't love it, someone you love will.

The art of creative nonfiction, whether memoir, or personal essay, or journalism, is, in my opinion, is growing while the art of literary novel is shrinking. The stories contained in this compilation are powerful experiences not only because of the form in which they are presented, but by the fact that they are true experiences. I believe that for most people films are replacing the novel. The general public is drawn to reality based TV. Genre fiction will always have a large audience because the books are easy to digest, quick reads, and fun. Literature is demanding and people don't want to take the time to wade through the complexity of a modern day Moby Dick (if there were one). With creative nonfiction shorts, I get the literary gratification I look for in 5-25 page shorts that are well written, thought provoking, and entertaining. I don't know where you can get better writing than this compilation by Lee Gutkind, the authority on this art form. If you haven't tried this form of literature, you owe it to yourself to check it out. The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 1