The Best American Essays

Brief Description: "The essays in this volume are powerful, plainspoken meditations on birthing, dying, and all the business in between," writes Lauren Slater in her introduction to the 2006 edition. "They reflect the best of what we, as a singular species, have to offer, which is reflection in a context of kindness. The essays tell hard-won tales wrestled sometimes from great pain." The twenty powerful essays in this volume are culled from periodicals ranging from The Sun to The New Yorker, from Crab Orchard Review to Vanity Fair. In "Missing Bellow," Scott Turow reflects on the death of an author he never met, but one who "overpowered me in a way no other writer had." Adam Gopnik confronts a different kind of death, that of his five-year-old daughter's pet fish -- a demise that churns up nothing less than "the problem of consciousness and the plotline of Hitchock's Vertigo." A pet is center stage as well in Susan Orlean's witty and compassionate saga of a successful hunt for a stolen border collie. Poe Ballantine chronicles a raw-nerved pilgrimage in search of salvation, solace, and a pretty brunette, and Laurie Abraham, in "Kinsey and Me," journeys after the man who dared to plumb the mysteries of human desire. Marjorie Williams gives a harrowing yet luminous account of her life with cancer, and Michele Morano muses on the grammar of the subjunctive mood while proving that "in language, as in life, moods are complicated, but at least in language there are only two."Brief Description: Published: Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., -Table of Contents: Foreword by Robert Atwan ix Introduction by Lauren Slater xv Laurie Abraham. Kinsey and Me 1 from Elle Poe Ballantine. 501 Minutes to Christ 11 from The Sun Emily Bernard. Teaching the N-Word 25 from The American Scholar Ken Chen. City Out of Breath 43 from MAnoa Toi Derricotte. Beginning Dialogues 48 from Creative Nonfiction Joseph Epstein. The Culture of Celebrity 54 from The Weekly Standard Eugene Goodheart. Whistling in the Dark 70 from The Sewanee Review Adam Gopnik. Death of a Fish 85 from The New Yorker Kim Dana Kupperman. Relief 96 from Hotel Amerika Michele Morano. Grammar Lessons: The Subjunctive Mood 107 from Crab Orchard Review Susan Orlean. Lost Dog 122 from The New Yorker Sam Pickering. George 133 from Southwest Review Robert Polito. Shame 153 from Black Clock David Rieff. Illness as More Than Metaphor 159 from The New York Times Magazine Oliver Sacks. Recalled to Life 172 from The New Yorker Peter Selgin. Confessions of a Left-Handed Man 185 from The Literary Review Alan Shapiro. Why Write? 197 from The Cincinnati Review Lily Tuck. Group Grief 208 from The Hudson Review Scott Turow. Missing Bellow 225 from The Atlantic Monthly Marjorie Williams. A Matter of Life and Death 238 from Vanity Fair Biographical Notes 265 Notable Essays of 2005 270 Review Citations:

Booklist 10/15/2006 pg. 15 (EAN 9780618705290, Paperback)

Publishers Weekly 08/14/2006 pg. 195 (EAN 9780618705290, Paperback)

Publishers Weekly 08/14/2006 pg. 195 (EAN 9780618705313, Hardcover)

Booklist 10/15/2006 pg. 15 (EAN 9780618705313, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:  Slater, Lauren Lauren Slater is a psychologist and writer. She is the author of Opening Skinner's Box and Blue Beyond Blue, among other books. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. Contributor Bio:  Atwan, Robert ROBERT ATWAN has been the series editor of "The Best American Essays" since its inception in 1986. He has edited numerous literary anthologies and written essays and reviews for periodicals nationwide.