The Best American Essays 2005

An essay collection like this is more than simply the sum of its parts, of course, but as far as the essays Orlean chose for this edition, I rated over half better than average, with nine 4 star and two 4.5 star essays among them. I only actively disliked two essays in the whole book.

I can't judge how well the book lives up to its premise - a collection of the best American essays published in 2004 - because I haven't read the other essays from that year that didn't make the cut.

The gender ratio of the authors is a bit unfortunate - of the 25 essays, 17 were by men, and eight by women. Even if we count guest editor Susan Orlean's introduction as an essay, it would be countered by series editor Robert Atwan's foreward, leaving the ratio show more exactly the same.

I haven't read enough collections of this type from around 2005 to know if this was out of line with similar books, in either direction. I do know that I would hope for - if not neccessarily expect - better in a collection put out now.

That being said, I try to judge books by what they are rather than what they aren't, and as far as the essays that Orleans ended up selecting go, I found the collection a worthwhile and enjoyable read on the whole.

The essays were in alphabetical order by author, which is a good organization system for a book like this. However, the author bios were all collected at the end, in their own section, after the last essay. I would have preferred they be placed throughout the book, as a preface to each essay. This would have allowed the author bios to provide additional context, adding to the experience of reading each essay. Also, by the end, I didn't remember most of the essays well enough for the bios to mean much to me. I took a lot longer than most readers to get through this collection, but I think this would still have been an issue even if that hadn't happened, although probably to a lesser extent.

I really like that the collection concludes with a several page list of notable essays from 2004, including all of the ones on the list from which the chosen essays were selected, so that readers can seek them out themselves if they want to.

So, on the whole, while I do think there are things that could be improved, I liked this book and am glad that I read it. Even with the decades that have passed since 2004, none of the essays have aged past relevance or interest for current readers, and I do reccomend it to anyone who enjoys general essay collections of this type. show less

Like any collection, there are essays that I loved and some that I skimmed (and I admit, one or two that I read a page of and then moved to the next one). Favorites? "If Memory Doesn't Serve" by [[Ian Frazier]], talking about the tricks our memory plays as we get older. "The Prince of Possibility" by [[Robert Stone]], about hanging out with Ken Kesey and friends in the 1960s. "Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog" by [[Kitty Burns Florey]], about diagramming sentences. The book is worth reading just for these 3 essays.