The Best American Essays 2016
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The National Book Award–winning author compiles a “thought-provoking volume” of essays by Joyce Carol Oates, Oliver Sacks, Jaquira Diaz and others (Publishers Weekly).
As Jonathan Franzen writes in his introduction, his main criterion for selecting The Best American Essays 2016 “was whether an author had taken a risk.” The resulting volume showcases authorial risk in a variety of forms, from championing an unpopular opinion to the possibility of ruining a professional career, or irrevocably alienating one’s family. What’s gained are essential insights into aspects of the human condition that would otherwise remain concealed—from questions of queer identity, to the experience of a sibling’s autism and relationships between students and college professors.
The Best American Essays 2016 includes entries by Alexander Chee, Paul Crenshaw, Jaquira Diaz, Laura Kipnis, Amitava Kaumar, Sebastian Junger, Joyce Carol Oates, Oliver Sacks, George Steiner, Thomas Chatterton Williams, and others.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In choosing the essays for this thought-provoking volume, guest editor Franzen (Purity) used risk as his main criterion: specifically, did the author take one? And his selections do indeed go to risky, sensitive places. Most of all, they do what the essay form arguably does best: engaging the personal in order to reach larger themes. There are several standouts even among this stellar company, such as Joyce Carol Oates's gut-wrenching story of her severely autistic younger sister, and Jaquira D az's vivid telling of being abused as a child. Francisco Cant 's diary of becoming a border patrol agent is gripping. Laura Kipnis's exploration of sexual consent guidelines about relationships between students and college professors is startlingly candid. Alexander Chee and Mason Stokes both grapple with questions of queer identity, and Jill Sisson Quinn makes unexpectedly poignant connections between wanting to adopt a child and her love of salamander watching. The collection also includes one of the last pieces written by Oliver Sacks before his death in 2015. As Franzen notes in his excellent introduction, and as his selections prove, the essay form forces authors to take measure of themselves, and allows the reader to do so as well.
