Wind Sprints

March 14, 2016
The 143 essays in Epstein's entertaining new collection (after A Literary Education) are compulsively readable. Written between 1996 and 2015, primarily for the "Casual" section of the Weekly Standard, most run to fewer than 1000 words, develop their themes in under a dozen succinct paragraphs, and frequently conclude with epigrammatic witticisms. Epstein shows himself capable of writing engagingly at that brief length on just about any topic that strikes his fancy: parents instructing children about the facts of life, aging memory, coining neologisms, movie palaces of yore, the traditional hot dog as an endangered species, adult education classes, shoe shines, the Seven Deadly Sins and the Enlivening Vices. He even expresses his opinion about having no opinion, in an essay entitled (not surprisingly) "No Opinion." A significant number of essays target language and writing, and these yield some of his most trenchant insights: "Style in prose is intelligence perfectly formulated," he remarks in "Mr. Epstein Regrets." The essays are peppered with personal memories and quotes from literature and punctuated with bursts of humorâEpstein likens a bandleader's bellow to that "of a man who has just been pushed off a cliff"âand they abound with pleasures that belie their brevity.

Starred review from January 15, 2016
A master of the essay form returns with a collection of brief pieces spanning nearly 20 years, 1996 to 2015. Most of the offerings are indeed quite short, a few pages at most. Former American Scholar editor Epstein (A Literary Education and Other Essays, 2014, etc.) sticks to straight chronology with only a few deviations for, one infers, circumstance's sake. A few themes emerge. One is language: there are locutions he hates ("multitask," "focus," "branding"), and he believes in the significance of the sentence for writers. Another is technology: Epstein is the proud owner of a flip phone, which he rarely uses, and in several essays, he snarls about the ubiquity and abuse of the smartphone. Books (of course): he writes about his smallish library (for a bibliophile) and admits he's pruned his collection a couple of times. He also writes about books he loves (In Search of Lost Time) and admits to some famous ones he hasn't read (The Brothers Karamazov and the Bible, though he began reading it all in 2012). Politics: his conservative views emerge most often in context, but he does have one amusing essay imagining that two children of Alexander Portnoy are Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner. Writers he likes: Henry James and Proust pop up frequently, as does--a bit of a surprise--John O'Hara. Epstein tells us about his routines as a writer, his pride in being an author, and his anxiety about who should receive one of his author's copies (he has two essays about this). Annoyances: he cancelled his New York Times subscription after 50 years, and he hates the custom of restaurant servers declaring their names. Personal improvement: he announces that he's trying to quit swearing and to drop the word "yeah" from his conversation. He rarely mentions his family. Another subtitle might have been Healthful Snacks, for these bite-size pieces are both enjoyable to ingest and good for you.

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March 1, 2016

Epstein (emeritus lecturer of English, Northwestern Univ.), a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, and the Weekly Standard, is acclaimed for his witty, perceptive, and occasionally contentious essays, which he began during his editorship (1974-97) of American Scholar. These writings have been published in multiple collections (e.g., A Literary Education and Other Essays and Essays in Biography), and in this latest, most of the 143 pieces are harvested from the Weekly Standard (1996-2015). They are essentially apercus--insights or observations on matters personal or familiar. Humorous and conversational, leavened with literary and philosophical quotations, the narratives deplore phone menus, remembering PINs, and infelicitous sentence structure ("It Rings--You Jump," "Numbers on the Brain," "Mr. Epstein Regrets"). The author bemoans the excessive use of buzzwords ("Take a Flying Focus," "Don't Ask, Multitask," "The Issue Issue") and extols his fashionable attire--hat, sneakers, and bow-tie ("Cool Chapeau, Man," "Foot Fop"). VERDICT In "Literary Tippling," Epstein recounts his need to "tipple"--to have reading material at every occasion, including the bathroom. These entertaining and engaging essays are pithy (most are no longer than two pages), and as the book title itself suggests, amenable to such "tippling."--Lonnie Weatherby, McGill Univ. Lib., Montreal

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