The Best American Essays [Hardcover]

This year's volume seems particularly rich to me.

Cynthia Ozick's essay "The Synthetic Sublime," an homage to New York City, is my favorite. It is a stylistic tour de force which for me echoes James and Wharton, two other writers with New York on their minds.

Eight others merit my highest rating: Fred D'Aguiar's poignant "A Son in Shadow," where the author attempts to capture in an amber prose the father whom he never knew; William Gass's "In Defense of the Book," an erudite and witty apologia for the printed page; Richard McCann's "The Resurrectionist," a sensitive exploration of a liver transplant; Scott Russell Sander's heart-of-the-country meditation on mortality and God, "The Force of Spirit"; Lynne Sharon Schwartz's sardonic "At a Certain Age," a more comic take on mortality; Peter Singer's provocative (and slightly annoying) "The Singer Solution to World Poverty" (in which Mr. Singer reveals to me that he must be a lucky man without credit card debt or a thankless job); Floyd Skloot's astonishing "Gray Area: Thinking with a Damaged Brain," which reveals a remarkable life force hard at work in a man who refuses to give up after a virus destroyed much of his brain; and Mark Slouka's "Listening for Silence," a much needed commentary on our noisy modern world.

High marks also go to Ian Burma's "The Joys and Perils of Victimhood," which rightly warns against the Romantic cult of kitsch and death often growing out of communal suffering, where rationality takes a backseat to sentiment; Edwidge Danticat's "Westbury Court," a Brooklyn childhood remembrance; Mary Gordon's "Rome: The Visible City," an idiosyncratic contrast between the sacred and secular in this ancient yet modern city; Edward Hoagland's "Earth's Eye," a lovely meditation on water and Nature; Jamaica Kincaid's postmodern "Those Words That Echo...Echo...Echo through Life," an essay less about her father (its starting point) than about the mysteriousness of the Particular; Geeta Kothari's humorous and pungent memoir on culture-clash and food, "If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?"; and Terry Tempest Williams' clever analysis of wilderness as Art, "A Shark in the Mind..."

I also loved the ending of Andre Aciman's "The Last Time I Saw Paris," which for me validated the essay as a whole; the wisdom of Wendell Berry's "In Distrust of Movements," where holism takes precedence over labels in saving the planet; and the lyrical sadness of Cheryl Strayed's "Heroin/e," a bitingly honest memoir on parent loss and addiction.

There was merit in even my two least favorite essays, Andrew Sullivan's philosophizing on "What's So Bad About Hate?" (which notes that "A free country will always be a hateful country"); and Steven Weinberg's anti-theist "A Designer Universe?" (which notes that "[it takes religion] for good people to do evil."

I am unfamiliar with Alan Lightman's writing, and his introduction about a Millennium party did not move me; however, I applaud his taste in essays. This is a memorable addition to an already excellent series.

Alan Lightman, the editor of this year's volume, is apparently one who practices what he preaches, beginning his introduction with a lively essay about his family's Year 2000 new year's eve celebration. Just as I was thinking to myself that it was as if I had actually attended that party, he abruptly ends that story to explain the philosophy of choice that guided him in selecting the 21 essays appearing in this book, writing "The qualities I treasure most about these essays are their authenticity and life. In reading an essay, I want to feel that I'm communing with a real person..."

I doubt if anyone will find the taste of each of these essays immediately pleasing. Is it the point of such a sampling to be consistently pleasurable to every reader? I think not. Lightman has carefully chosen for his readers a wide selection of wines, including multiple varieties from several regions, and I had not tasted all of these wines before. Some were exquisite to me, evoking memories that I had not visited for many years, but not all were necessarily pleasing to my palate. Yet each is a sophisticated wine, with complex aftertastes; well-crafted by experienced vintners. You will never know what you like if you don't try new things.

Perhaps some potential readers would appreciate a few more practical details about the content of the book. There are several common themes woven through this collection. Three of the essays deal with the subject of travel--specifically with the cities of New York, Paris, and Rome. The subject of death and chronic medical problems appears several times, as does the related subject of family and its influence on the outlook of the essayists. I found two of the early essays comfortably curmudgeonly, addressing the subjects of misplaced victimhood and single-issue politics. An essay on the nature of hate by Andrew Sullivan resonated with ideas that I've been wrestling with for years. Singer's solution to world poverty should be disturbing to the conscience of just about any reader. Although several of the writers deal with spiritual themes, from my Christian perspective, the religious sentiments are somewhat superficial.

This is a diverse group of well-written essays, chosen as much for their ability to stimulate as for their reading pleasure. A desire to agree with the agendas of each author before reading would miss the point of such book.