The Best American Essays 2010

The Best American Essays 2010

Though I love essays, this is my first foray into this annual anthology, and I will certainly be going back for more.  I chose it because of the editor, Christopher Hitchens, whose biting, brilliant prose greets me every month in Vanity Fair.  I also love the fact that he is an unapologetic freethinker, atheist, and all-around curmudgeon.  The world needs fewer sheep and lemmings.  (Hitchens is also currently undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer and the September and October 2010 issues of VF contain well-written essays on his illness.)

This collection has the expected wide range of thematic material, though all of them will surely not be to everyone’s taste.  I will single out a few that left an impression on me…

“The Bad Lion” by Toni Bentley is an arresting take on anthropomorphism…one expects a lovely trip through the veldt as the author goes on safari, but her meditations on an essentially sociopathic male lion in the park and the response of park staff is an excellent example of a great essay being one that takes the reader in a wholly unexpected direction.

Jane Churchon’s “The Dead Book”  is an autobiographical essay on the author’s work as a nurse and her responsibility for pronouncing death on her patients.  Her straightforward, almost conversational style belies a depth of respect and compassion for those moving from one world to the next.

In “The Elegant Eyeball” by John Gamel, an ophthalmologist gives fascinating insight into his specialty, especially the treatment of patients with macular degeneration.  Both truly informative and genuinely moving.

“Lunching on Olympus” tells the tale of a young man (Steven Isenberg) and his encounters with iconic British literary figures such as W. H. Auden and E. M. Forster in the 1960s.  Not at all larger than life, the celebrated figures, as seen through Isenberg’s youthful gaze, are regular, sometimes eccentric people, and their simple humanity comes to the fore in this essay, which is also a snapshot of a lost era.

Steven Pinker’s “My Genome, My Self” examines the pros and cons of genetic testing.  Language scholar Pinker uses subtle and self-deprecating humor to thoughtfully examine his own test results.

“Gyromancy” by Ron Rindo offers an intriguing take on Vincent van Gogh, positing that instead of significant mental illness, the tortured artist actually suffered from Meniere’s disease.  The author is similarly afflicted, and his gripping account of attacks of severe vertigo makes for compelling reading.  You will never look at “Starry Night” in the same way again.

And finally, who can resist David Sedaris? “Guy Walks into a Bar Car” relates a fateful train ride, the end (and beginning) of a number of relationships and a debauched interlude in the ladies’ lounge.  Vintage Sedaris.

Other essays tackle such diverse themes as Tolstoy, Orwell, Marion Barry, William F. Buckley,  the Gettysburg battlefield, John Updike, divorce,  and Emmitt Till, among others.  All are worth reading and thinking about and showcase the diversity and quality of the short nonfiction form.

(Advance copy courtesy of the publisher and netGalley)