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About the Author

Works by Jordan Bass

The Best of McSweeney's {complete} (1800) — Editor — 143 copies

Associated Works

The Future Dictionary of America (2004) — Introduction; Contributor — 627 copies

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Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Bass, Jordan
Gender
male

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Reviews

I love everything about McSweeney’s – the concept, the variety, the intelligence of it all – and so I really I had high hopes for the “Best of”. It comes in at over 600 pages, a monster of a compilation, and will probably have a little something for everyone. I have to say though – and this may be because initial expectations are so important in one’s ultimate evaluation – this edition is good, and certainly worth reading, but it didn’t blow me away as much as I was hoping it would. I’m not sure if it’s because, like a rock group who releases a Greatest Hits album and then includes songs from later (and lesser) albums that really shouldn’t be on there, editors Eggers and Bass opted for completeness and breadth over quality. I do think it could have been tightened up, understanding that it must have been a very difficult task, and in the end it may be just a matter of personal taste.

How the contributions stack up for me, which also gives an idea for how hard it is to assign a single rating to the overall collection:

Favorites (4.5 stars)
“Retreat”, and “Retreat #2”, Wells Tower
“The Girl With Bangs”, Zadie Smith
“Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events”, Kevin Moffett
“Fire: The Next Sharp Stick?”, John Hodgman
“Two By Two”, Gunnhild Øyehaug

Solid (4 stars)
“The Ceiling”, Kevin Brockmeier
“New Boy”, Roddy Doyle
“Statistical Abstract for My Hometown, Spokane, Washington”, Jess Walter
The assorted sampler of comics / graphic novels from #13
“The Bees”, Dan Chaon
“Gentleman, Start Your Engines”, Andrew Sean Greer
“Coop”, Glen David Gold (one of several 20-minute stories from #12)
“Bored to Death”, Jonathan Ames
“There is No Time in Waterloo”, Sheila Heti
“The Double Zero”, Ricky Moody
“Girl and Giraffe”, Lydia Millet
“Hot Pink”, Adam Levin
“The New, Abridged Dictionary of Accepted Ideas”, E. Rozic and A. Hemon

Meh (3 stars)
15-20 other contributions that are too tedious to list

Ugh (1 star)
“They All Stand Up And Sing”, Julie Hecht
“Mr. Squishy”, David Foster Wallace (this one was so poor it had me traumatized and curled up in the fetal position after slogging through it…Eggers seems so proud of himself to have gotten “DFW” to add a few ‘newlines’ to his paragraphs during the editing process and the fact that it was originally published under a pseudonym that he doesn’t critically evaluate it – and omit it – as he should have done)
“Notes From the Middle World”, Breyten Breytenbach

And, as a side note, I love Eggers’ relating the story about the inspiration for how his publication tries to select writers; he quotes Maura McSweeney, who he met (along with her husband Timothy) in Galway, Ireland, about a writer she liked: “He writes like he’s seeing the world for the first time.” … love that one.
… (more)
½
1 vote
Flagged
gbill | Nov 25, 2016 |

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Associated Authors

Andrés Lozano Interior Artist
Michael Chabon Contributor
Adam Levin Contributor
Julie Hecht Contributor
Peter Orner Contributor
Todd Pruzan Contributor
Mary Miller Contributor
John Moe Contributor
Daniel Alarcón Contributor
Glen David Gold Contributor
Simon Rich Contributor
Deb Olin Unferth Contributor
Kevin Moffett Contributor
Clancy Martin Contributor
Michelle Orange Contributor
Daniel G. Clowes Contributor
Laird Hunt Contributor
Gunnhild Øyehaug Contributor
Wells Tower Contributor
Tom O'Donnell Contributor
Mike Sacks Contributor
Ben Jahn Contributor
Bill Tarlin Contributor
Colleen Werthmann Contributor
Edwin Rozic Contributor
Jennie Erin Smith Contributor
Nyuol Lueth Tong Contributor
Ellie Kemper Contributor
Steve Delaboyde Contributor
Amy Fusselman Contributor
Zadie Smith Contributor
Sheila Heti Contributor
Jonathan Lethem Contributor
Roddy Doyle Contributor
Sarah Vowell Contributor
Nicholson Baker Contributor
Chris Ware Contributor
George Saunders Contributor
A. M. Homes Contributor
Rick Moody Contributor
Steven Millhauser Contributor
Jennifer Egan Contributor
Joe Sacco Contributor
John Hodgman Contributor
Lawrence Weschler Contributor
Adrian Tomine Contributor
Kevin Brockmeier Contributor
Andrew Sean Greer Contributor
Jonathan Ames Contributor
Dan Chaon Contributor
Lydia Davis Contributor
Jess Walter Contributor
Sean Wilsey Contributor
Sam Lipsyte Contributor
Chris Adrian Contributor
Aleksandar Hemon Contributor
Lydia Millet Contributor
Arthur Bradford Contributor
Eric March Cover artist

Statistics

Works
1
Also by
1
Members
143
Popularity
#144,062
Rating
½ 3.4
Reviews
1
ISBNs
2

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