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A review by julieemeunier
The Best American Essays 2024 by Wesley Morris
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
3.5
I appreciate the diverse range of voices, each sharing their lived experiences with candor and creativity. Introducing Sallie Tisdale’s essay on memoirists as inherently unreliable narrators early in the series set the tone for the entire collection. Tisdale’s perspective encouraged me to approach each piece with a deeper awareness, knowing that the truths presented were as much about interpretation, as they were about fact, and the flexibility of what “fact” might mean to each and everyone one of us.
My personal stand outs:
* Mere Belief by Sallie Tisdale (see above)
* The Lives of Bryan by Jennifer Sinor on grief, suicide, and the many lives one lives before they can no longer keep going
* Proxemics by Jonathan Gleason on the realities of incarceration, and intergenerational trauma
* The Anatomy of Panic by Michael W. Clune offered an unparalleled depiction of anxiety—both original and entirely accurate
* The Ones We Sent Away by Jennifer Senior provided a look at the history of eugenics and the treatment of people with disabilities across North America
* Love is a Washing Line by Remy Ngamije (my favourite, favourite) on marriage and boxing. “Your marriage has a line, too. It stretches from “I do” until death do us part. Except it is not tight. It is more like a washing line, weighed down by laundry, buoyed down by time. It can carry a lot. Until it cannot.”
* A Rewilding by Christienne L. Hinz on our ecosystem, and its inherent implications of race; the traumatized people living in a traumatized ecosystem.
My personal stand outs:
* Mere Belief by Sallie Tisdale (see above)
* The Lives of Bryan by Jennifer Sinor on grief, suicide, and the many lives one lives before they can no longer keep going
* Proxemics by Jonathan Gleason on the realities of incarceration, and intergenerational trauma
* The Anatomy of Panic by Michael W. Clune offered an unparalleled depiction of anxiety—both original and entirely accurate
* The Ones We Sent Away by Jennifer Senior provided a look at the history of eugenics and the treatment of people with disabilities across North America
* Love is a Washing Line by Remy Ngamije (my favourite, favourite) on marriage and boxing. “Your marriage has a line, too. It stretches from “I do” until death do us part. Except it is not tight. It is more like a washing line, weighed down by laundry, buoyed down by time. It can carry a lot. Until it cannot.”
* A Rewilding by Christienne L. Hinz on our ecosystem, and its inherent implications of race; the traumatized people living in a traumatized ecosystem.