The Best American Essays 2014 (The Best American Series ®)

by John Jeremiah Sullivan (Editor)

Other authorsRobert Atwan (Editor)

Paperback, 2014

Status

Available

Series

Best American (2014)

The Best American Essays (2014)

Collection

Steve Zemke and Catherine A. Griffith Collection

Publication

Mariner Books (2014), 272 pages

Description

Biography & Autobiography. Literary Criticism. Nonfiction. HTML:The acclaimed author of Pulphead collects "21 of the year's most urgent and at times painfully truthful pieces of nonfiction published in the U.S." (Publishers Weekly, starred review). In our age of trigger warnings and jeopardized free expression, The Best American Essays 2014 does not shy away from shocking extremes, ambiguities, or dualities. As guest editor John Jeremiah Sullivan notes, the essay assumes many two-sided forms, and these diverse pieces capture all the conceptions of what an essay can be: the loose and the strict, the flourish and the finished, the try and the trial. Sullivan's choices embrace the high and the low, the memoirist's confession and the journalist s reportage, and all the gray area in between. From a hotel in Mongolia to a Clockwork Orange like Baltimore, from a Rome emergency room to Burning Man, these diverse pieces surprise and entertain, inform and titillate. The Best American Essays 2014 includes entries by Kristin Dombek, Dave Eggers, Leslie Jamison, Ariel Levy, Yiyun Li, Barry Lopez, Zadie Smith, Wells Tower, Emily Fox Gordon, James Wood, and others.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member CarolynSchroeder

From the absolutely horrible to the truly unforgettable, this was my first foray into the genre of "essay." I figured I would start with the "best of" (as I loved this year's short story anthology). Well, it was surely an adventure. I came to three conclusions. One, just because someone technically

writes well, it does not mean her life, thoughts or events therein are interesting and she should write about them. Second, the essay is a great new reading form for me and the subject matter is unlimited. So I will ferret out different types of essays in the future. Third, sometimes brevity is truly the soul of it all and the shorter essays really packed an emotional punch. The ones that were dreadful seemed to go on and on. Overall, this is a VERY introspective, dark, disconnected and troubled look at the various writers' lives and some of the people they know, but there are some bits of hope and connection in there. There are a few real standouts for me, but I realize all opinions differ. Those were: "The Old Man at Burning Man" by Wells Tower, "Sliver of Sky" by Barry Lopez, "The Final Day in Rome" by John H. Culver, "The Devil's Bate" by Leslie Jamison and "The Man at the River" by Dave Eggers. Recommended for a little something different, but I cannot fathom all essays will resonate with all persons. But the ones that stick with you, really do!

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