Robert Atwan

The foolish political analysts of the late aughts thought they were on the cusp of a precipitous descent into hell itself. (Whereas it's exactly this moment that is the cusp. No, rather this moment. Actually it's this moment...) In fact, the political briefs on the Iraq war (there are four of them) are all quite good, if at times alarmist(: 'if Bush is enthusiastic about the use of torture, which is in violation of the Geneva conventions, then we can expect his enthusiastic use of nuclear weapons which are not in violation of these conventions...' ) The disguised fiction/prose pieces aren't terrible either, but the mediocre essays outnumber the good, and none of them produce lasting insight.



Instead we have a collage of DFW's worst impulses, which point backward to his despair. It's one thing to 'lament the horrors of the modern age' while recognizing modern bane/boon are dialectical i.e. 'there is also good'. It's another thing to 'lament the horrors of the modern age' as an unsmiling social reactionary. DFW's perspective on our great 'social degeneration' is more or less: 'These are problems that have never existed before and are currently a major threat to the integrity of our society. We could solve all these problems if everyone listened to me.' Ahistorical at best. Which problems merit this alarm? Late 90s 'Political Correctness' scares in The Freedom to Offend, 'Sexual Degeneracy' panics in Afternoon of the Sex Children, Late 90s 'Liberal Idiocy' screeds in Loaded and Dragon Slayers, 'My-philoosphy-and-political-ideas-are-correct-and-everyone-would-agree-with-me-if-they-just-heard-my-argument' in Out From Xanadu, Apocalypse Now, and others.… (more)

The Best American Essays 2022, edited by Alexander Chee, is an excellent collection of essays that speak to many of the things we all experience in life, but through distinctly personal lenses.

Because essays are personal accounts from very specific perspectives, I think readers are more likely to have a greater preference for or against certain ones as compared to short stories. A couple of these moved me quite deeply while a couple were just good reads (which isn't a bad thing).

I use such collections for times when I have limited time and don't want to try to get back into a longer work but I do want to read. These essays do very well for this, probably even better than most short story collections, because I find myself thinking about the essay as well as the essayist once I have finished. In this way it stays with me even when I have returned to whatever demands my time.

For anyone who enjoys the essay form I would highly recommend this collection. There wasn't quite the variety I would have expected but the quality is certainly here.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (more)