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The Best American Essays 2006

by Lauren Slater (Editor), Robert Atwan (Editor)

Other authors: Laurie Abraham (Contributor), Poe Ballantine (Contributor), Emily Bernard (Contributor), Ken Chen (Contributor), Toi Derricotte (Contributor)16 more, Joseph Epstein (Contributor), Eugene Goodheart (Contributor), Adam Gopnik (Contributor), Kim Dana Kupperman (Contributor), Michele Morano (Contributor), Susan Orlean (Contributor), Sam Pickering (Contributor), Robert Polito (Contributor), David Rieff (Contributor), Oliver Sacks (Contributor), Peter Selgin (Contributor), Alan Shapiro (Contributor), Lauren Slater (Introduction), Lily Tuck (Contributor), Scott Turow (Contributor), Marjorie Williams (Contributor)

Series: The Best American Essays (2006), Best American (2006)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
301186,388 (3.75)1
"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."… (more)
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Essays don't always sound too tempting, but I couldn't put this book down. It seemed that most of the authors were middle-aged, and I could relate to their predicaments with friends, parents and pets dying or discovering serious disease. Not a lot of humor that I recall, but a lot of moving and clear writing. Much of the book was memorable and very worthwhile. ( )
  kishields | May 31, 2009 |
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» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Slater, LaurenEditorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Atwan, RobertEditormain authorall editionsconfirmed
Abraham, LaurieContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Ballantine, PoeContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bernard, EmilyContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Chen, KenContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Derricotte, ToiContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Epstein, JosephContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Goodheart, EugeneContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Gopnik, AdamContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Kupperman, Kim DanaContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Morano, MicheleContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Orlean, SusanContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Pickering, SamContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Polito, RobertContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Rieff, DavidContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Sacks, OliverContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Selgin, PeterContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Shapiro, AlanContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Slater, LaurenIntroductionsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Tuck, LilyContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Turow, ScottContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Williams, MarjorieContributorsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed

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"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."

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