The Best American Essays 2014

Starred review from September 22, 2014
This illustrious annual anthology returns for its 29th year with a vengeance, featuring 21 of the year's most urgent and at times painfully truthful pieces of nonfiction published in U.S. periodicals. The introduction from editor Sullivan (Pulphead) traces the tangled etymological history of the term "essay," asking "How could we honestly trust any creature that comes into the world wearing such a caul of ambiguity?" Series editor Atwan's preface also touches on this theme, referencing the recent spate of dishonest memoirs but deeming the offerings here "simultaneously intense, intellectual and inventive." This multifaceted approach to narrative can be seen in Wendy Brenner's "Strange Beads," wherein she takes on the unfathomable burden of mourning her ex-fiancé's recent death while also facing her own ongoing struggle with cancer. It also appears in Barry Lopez's "Sliver of Sky," in which Lopez bravely revisits his horrific experience of sexual abuse during his 1950s childhood. Other impactful selections include Wells Tower's "The Old Man at Burning Man," Jerald Walker's "How to Make a Slave," and James Wood's "Becoming Them." This eclectic, powerful array of thought-provoking essays is sure to appeal to a broad array of readers. Agent: Gerald McCauley, Gerard McCauley Agency, and Jin Auh, Wylie Agency.

October 1, 2014
The current iteration in the venerable franchise, edited this year by essayist Sullivan (Pulphead, 2011, etc.), who contributes a thoughtful introduction on the art of the essay since it was defined by Montaigne. This year's collection is as eclectic as possible, considering recent trends toward the self-reverential, and most of the 21 contributions (arranged alphabetically by author) offer some valuable insights and lessons. The majority of the essays are written by players in their own stories, and several are droll and sagacious. "Marriage gives you someone to blame-for just about everything," writes Timothy Aubry in "A Matter of Life and Death." In her New Yorker essay "Thanksgiving in Mongolia," Ariel Levy writes, "Even if you are not Robinson Crusoe in a solitary fort, as a human being you walk this world by yourself. But when you are pregnant you are never alone." James Wood is "dismayed by the plagiarism of inheritance." While some of the essays display dry wit, others offer moist emotion. Barry Lopez tells a harrowing tale of cruel molestation. Wells Tower brightly chronicles his visit to Burning Man with his father. Leslie Jamison describes victims of what seems to be an imaginary disease. Zadie Smith considers the rarity of true joy. Paul West presents a lighthearted piece on being introduced at a public lecture. More audacious-and only partly successful-is Lawrence Jackson's "Slickheads," a pulsating story of ghetto life that occasionally indulges in unrepresentative vocabulary. Self-effacing Baron Wormser writes an overwrought sketch of Willem de Kooning that recalls the passion of the late John Dos Passos. A pervading theme is loss-of faith, self, youth, life. Other contributors to this worthy and diverse assemblage are Yiyun Li, Emily Fox Gordon and the ubiquitous Dave Eggers. Good reading on a variety of topics by an observant band of essayists.

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