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A review by bumblevee
The Best American Essays 2010 by Robert Atwan, Christopher Hitchens
3.0
In general, the “Best American” series is more often than not, a mixed bag and gamble. I find that whether or not I find the series successful is solely dependent on the Guest Editor’s taste in reading matching up with my own. The way the series is structured, a series editor (in this case Robert Atwan) whittles down a veritable pool of submissions from various publications for the best 100 or so essays from any given year, and the guest editor picks, in his/her own personal opinion, the best 20 for the book. I read the 2005 edition of the “Best American Short Stories” and found that Michael Chabon and I have vastly differing taste in fiction, and therefore found the experience rather uninspired.
I had higher hopes this time around as I generally admire Christopher Hitchens as a writer. Overall, I was pleased, but by no means blown away. All of the pieces are well written, but Matt Labash’s “A Rake’s Progress” is the only one whose writing really left a lasting impression and reminded me very much of Gay Talese. Essays covered a wide variety of intellectual topics ranging from eyeballs to sadistic necrophiliac lions to a discourse on how Einstein divided America’s Jewish population. I’d recommend this book to anyone wanting to brush up on long-form essay writing, or looking for inspiration for creative non-fiction writing with the caveat that some of the pieces will probably be uninteresting for those with no desire to read about sometimes obscure topics such as 18th century French poets or George Orwell’s political and literary evolutions.
I had higher hopes this time around as I generally admire Christopher Hitchens as a writer. Overall, I was pleased, but by no means blown away. All of the pieces are well written, but Matt Labash’s “A Rake’s Progress” is the only one whose writing really left a lasting impression and reminded me very much of Gay Talese. Essays covered a wide variety of intellectual topics ranging from eyeballs to sadistic necrophiliac lions to a discourse on how Einstein divided America’s Jewish population. I’d recommend this book to anyone wanting to brush up on long-form essay writing, or looking for inspiration for creative non-fiction writing with the caveat that some of the pieces will probably be uninteresting for those with no desire to read about sometimes obscure topics such as 18th century French poets or George Orwell’s political and literary evolutions.