Customer Reviews:
 Better than last year's collection, but that's faint praise October 31, 2009
David M. Giltinan (San Francisco)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I vacillated between two and three stars for this review, finally deciding on three stars, if only because it does represent an improvement over last year's dismal effort. As other reviewers have noted, the essays don't manage to live up to the introduction by this year's guest editor. I had two specific criticisms;
The first seems to be a fault that is endemic to this particular collection - there is far too much navel-gazing going on in these essays. I didn't find
*the travails of Michael Lewis living in a mansion beyond his means,
*a ten-page account of Garret Lewis's ongoing fight with deer in his backyard,
*10 pages about the personal health and fainting history of someone called James Marcus,
(each of the above delivered in prose that is at best adequate, and with no apparent irony)
anywhere near as fascinating as the authors of the respective pieces apparently did. I doubt that most Amazon readers will have a different reaction - these pieces smacked of solipsistic self-indulgence from start to finish.
My second criticism is probably more a reflection of my personal taste, and may not be shared by other readers. But I felt that Mary Oliver's background as a poet shone through, with the result that many of the pieces had a kind of "writerly" quality that might appeal to other writers, but was a bit precious for a general reader like me. This was particularly true of pieces like Chris Arthur's "(En)trance", Patricia Hampl's "The Dark Art of Description", Brian Doyle's "The Greatest nature Essay Ever", Cynthia Ozick's "Ghost writers", John Updike's "The Writer in Winter", any of which might be of interest to someone attending a writer's workshop, but none of which seemed to me to hold much interest for a general reader.
And, of course, it didn't help my evaluation that one of the longest pieces in the collection is by Richard Rodriguez, a writer whose self-indulgent posturing and whining gets on my last nerve. In a slim collection that doesn't even exceed 200 pages, the 21 pages devoted to his contribution "the God of the Desert" could surely have been put to better use.
Not to end on too sour a note, honorable mention is surely due to;
Sue Allison's "Taking a Reading"
Jill Mc Corkle's "Cuss Time"
David James Duncan's soaring "Cherish this Ecstasy"
and Kathryn Miles's wonderful "Dog is our Copilot"
But these amount to no more than 25 pages of 190, or - if you prefer - 4 essays out of 22. a disappointing batting average.
I think I've just argued myself back down to a two-star review*. Your mileage may vary.
*: Well, actually not, since that apparently corresponds to active dislike on the amazon scale. I didn't actively dislike the book, just didn't particularly like it a whole lot.
 Finally a collection that has a healthy selection of nature writing October 27, 2009
Sheryl St Germain (Pittsburgh, PA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I strongly disagree with the previous reviews about this book. The essays by Wendell Berry, Brian Doyle, David Duncan, Kathryn Miles and Barry Lopez are stellar as are many of the others. Oliver privileged, it seems, writing with a strong sense of place, especially the natural world, and those not used to this kind of writing may not like it. I love it. A great collection with a wonderful selection of traditional and innovative essays, one of which (the Duncan essay) turns into a poem at the end. The Doyle essay on writing nature essays should be required reading for anyone interested in writing essays of any type.
 Great Introduction For a Disappointing Selection October 23, 2009
Valerie Lynn
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
This year's essay collection did not live up to the excellent introduction written by editor Mary Oliver. Had these essays been as passionate and appealing as she suggested they would be, I would not have been so disappointed. They came nowhere near acting as "a most fervent, provocative, and valuable friend." The essays as a group did not stir me and I cannot recommend this book.
 Terrible!!! October 22, 2009
Thomas Milo (New York, NY United States)
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
I've always loved the Best American series, especially the volume of essays. I haven't picked up the past few editions, so maybe this is a weak entry, or maybe my tastes have changed. In any case, this edition is absolutely awful.
It's a shame, because the introduction by Mary Oliver really piqued my interest. Her short history of essay writing is interesting. She mentions that--in times past--the essay was not held to such rigorous standards of factual accuracy. Therefore, an essayist could rely on fact, fiction, memory, and imagination to write a an essay. Now we take an essayist like David Sedaris--who I don't particularly like--and pick him apart for not writing stories that are 100% fact.
In case, don't but this book.
|
