内容简介
Here you will find the finest essays "judiciously selected fromcountless publications" (Chicago Tribune), ranging from The NewYorker and Harper's to Swink and Pinch. In his introduction to thisyear's edition, Adam Gopnik finds that great essays have "text andinner text, personal story and larger point, the thing you'resupposed to be paying attention to and some other thing you'rereally interested in." David Sedaris's quirky, hilarious account ofa childhood spent yearning for a home where history was properlyrespected is also a poignant rumination on surviving the passage oftime. In "The Ecstasy of Influence," Jonathan Lethem ponders theintriguing phenomenon of cryptomnesia: a person believes herself tobe creating something new but is really recalling similar,previously encountered work. Ariel Levy writes in "The LesbianBride's Handbook" of her efforts to plan a party that accuratelyreflects her lifestyle (which she notes is "not black-tie ") as sheconfronts head-on what it means to be married. And Lauren Slater isoff to "Tripp Lake," recounting the one summer she spent at camp--asummer of color wars, horseback riding, and the "wild sadness" thatsettled in her when she was away from home. In the end, Gopnikbelieves that the only real ambition of an essayist is to be amaster of our common life. This latest installment of The BestAmerican Essays is full of writing that reveals, in Gopnik's words,"the breath of things as they are."