The Best American Essays, 1993 - Softcover

Epstein, Joseph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0395636485 ISBN 13: 9780395636480

Publisher: Ticknor & Fields, 1993

Synopsis

A collection of essays on the most poignant and humorous issues of today features the writing of Ada Louise Huxtable, Ward Just, Oliver Sacks, Cynthia Ozick, Alex Haley, and Barbara Grizzuti Harrison. Simultaneous. 35,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Atwan is founding editor of the Best American Essays series. His previous poetry anthologies include Chapters into Verse, Divine Inspiration, A Mind of Winter: Poems for a Snowy Season, The Language of Spring: Poems for the Season of Renewal, and The Heart of Autumn: Poems for the Season of Reflection.

From Kirkus Reviews:

``The style of the essayist is that of an extremely intelligent, highly commonsensical person talking, without stammer and with impressive coherence, to him- or herself and to anyone else who cares to eavesdrop,'' writes essayist Epstein in his introduction to this satisfying eighth volume of the annual series. Along with series editor Robert Atwan, Epstein presents a range of voices and styles--from Joseph Brodsky writing in The New Republic to Cynthia Ozick in The New Yorker and Lewis Thomas in Audubon. In ``Collector's Item,'' Joseph Brodsky tells us that in August 1991 he saw an issue of the London Review of Books festooned with a blown-up Soviet postage stamp featuring ``Soviet Secret Agent Kim Philby (1912-1988).'' The shock of seeing a traitor so casually celebrated nearly made Brodsky sick. In the end, however, he concedes that ``what's revolting about his stamp is its proprietary sentiment; it's as though the earth that swallowed the poor sod licks its lips with profound satisfaction and says, he is mine.'' In contrast to the dense, elliptical style of Brodsky, James Salter writes a limpid memoir about West Point, ``You Must.'' But like Brodsky, who categorizes spies as a kind of lower life form, Salter raises questions about the qualities that distinguish some people--encountered at West Point or on a Wyoming road--whom he considers unusually highly evolved. Meanwhile, in her hilarious if scathing taking to task of the Frugal Gourmet (``P.C. on the Grill''), Barbara Gruzzuti Harrison shows that quaintly correct sentiments can't replace real humanity, and in a poignant personal memoir of doomed writer Alfred Chester (``Alfred Chester's Wig''), Cynthia Ozick explores the impact that early heartbreak can have on a life. A solid collection of 22 essays that, for the most part, draw us into the quietly entertaining pleasure of contemplating what makes humans tick. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ticknor & Fields
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0395636485
• ISBN 13: 9780395636480
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 378
• Editor: Atwan Robert