Unlock Now The Best American Essays 1991 Imagined By Joyce Carol Oates Released Through Publication

had high hopes for this BAE volume, edited by Oates with a smart, Oatesian introduction, but the contents overall felt as much like a mixed bag as usual.
In the table of contents of every BAE I've read I keep track of my favorite essaysgood essays get one check mark, great ones get two.
Six of the twentyone essays got single check marks, and one Naomi Shihab Nye's "Maintenance" got the elusive double.
Woody Allen, Margaret Atwood, Diane Hume George, Amy Tan, Jane Tompkins, and Joy Williams got the singles with work that prompted me to pause and listen harder.
Every essay was bright in its own way, but some dealt rather blandly with their otherwise interesting material and a few others didn't sound like the kind of essay the introduction described"Instead of driving hard to make a point, the essay saunters.
Instead of reaching conclusions, the essay ruminates and wonders, " All of this isn't to say that essays should try to impress me or that not impressing me means much.
However, of the several BAE volumes I've read, this one doesn't stand out, Interesting essays:
Questions of conquest / Mario Vargas Llosa On the fall of the Incan Empire
Mother Tongue / Amy Tan On native language in the U.
S.
This autumn morning / Gretel Ehrlich On mortality and being present
Random reflections of a secondrate mind / Woody Allen
The female body / Margaret Atwood In response to John Updike's "The female body"
Running the table / Frank Conroy The author's memory of learning to play pool
Introduction / Joyce Carol Oates On essays
Counters and cable cars / Stephen Jay Gould On San Francisco

Enjoyable:
Seeking home / Dorien Ross On the compulsion to find the right outfit

Exceptional:
Maintenance / Naomi Shihab Nye One time at the airport This volume includes excellent essays by John Updike, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Diana Hume George, Richard Rodriguez, Reg Saner, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Joy Williams.
This is a fun volume, It's always interesting to read a slightly older collection of essays not oldold, but from a time that you can personally remember, close enough to feel so familiar but just dated enough to make you go "wait what" a few times.
Additionally, there's just some straightup good stuff in here, especially Reg Saner's essay on geology, the Grand Canyon, and Christian pushback on geology.
with the fabulous Gretel Ehrlich essay, 'This Autumn Morning' I do not know if these are the best essays but those chosen represent many different aspects of American life and culture.
Joyce Carol Oates does note in the Introduction that she prefers an essay with knowledge to impart and there are many pieces in this vein.
The most notable is Joy Williams confrontational "The Killing Game" and a thought provoking essay by Mario Vargas Llosa.
Some of my favorites were Naomi Shihab Nyes “Maintenance” and Reg Saners “The Ideal Particle and the Great Unconformity”.
When I stumbled across The Best American Essays, I thought I'd give it a read since it had essays by several authors that I admired Woody Allen, John Updike, Mario Llosa Vargas, etc.
I skipped some essays, but most were enlightening or entertaining in some manner that I found worthwhile.
Woody Allen's essay, "Random Reflections of SecondRate Mind" was predictably funny, Margaret Atwood and John Updike both wrote on assignment about "The Female Body, " Frank Conroy writes a reminiscence about his love of the pool hall in "Running the Table, " Gerald Early writes about female identity, race, and the Miss America pageant in "Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant.
" Dina Hume George uses personal anecdotes from her life to discuss the problems on a Sioux Indian reservation in "Wounded Chevy at Wounded Knee.
" Then Stephen Jay Gould offers up an interesting discussion of authenticity in "Counters and Cable Cars, " Critic Elizabeth Hardwick writes about her beloved home city in "New York City: Crash Course, " Garrett Hongo's personal essay on his grandfather, "Kubota," is enlightening about the JapaneseAmerican experience before and after WWII.
"Maintenance" is a chance for Naomi Shihab Nye to talk about the many applications of the term.
In "Late Victorians" Richard Rodriguez talks about the architectural influence of this movement, San Francisco, and the gay movement and AIDS crisis.
Dorien Ross discusses selfidentity and image in "Seeking Home, " And Mark Rudman muses on memory and the pleasures of walking in New York in "Mosaic on Walking.
" Amy Tan talks about language, family, and identity in "Mother Tongue, " There is another essay that discusses race and identity, in Marianna De Marco Torgovnick's essay "One Being White, Female, and Born in Bensonhurst.
" The last essay I read was from one of my favorite contemporary novelists, Nobel Prize winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, who discusses the history of conquest in South America in "Questions of Conquest.
" Editor Joyce Carol Oates has done an admiral job of pulling together a variety of voices that reflect the American experience from a variety of genders, sexual identity, and racial backgrounds to show the complexity of American life that seems as though it may have been ahead of its time in.
Thevolume of The Best American Essays marks the sixth year in this flourishing series, Consistently singled out as presenting the year's best short nonfiction, it has reawakened excitement for this remarkably versatile, often overlooked and occasionally maligned form.
Includes works from Woody Allen, Stephen Jay Gould, Margaret Atwood and others,

Foreword / Robert Atwan
Introduction / Joyce Carol Oates
Random reflections of a secondrate mind / Woody Allen
The female body / Margaret Atwood
The female body / John Updike
Silent dancing / Judith Ortiz Cofer
Running the table / Frank

Conroy
Life with daughters : watching the Miss America Pageant / Gerald Early
This autumn morning / Gretel Ehrlich
Wounded Chevy at Wounded Knee / Diana Hume George
Counters and cable cars / Stephen Jay Gould
New York City : crash course / Elizabeth Hardwick
Kubota / Garrett Hongo
Maintenance / Naomi Shihab Nye
Late Victorians / Richard Rodriguez
Seeking home / Dorien Ross
Mosaic on walking / Mark Rudman
The ideal particle and the great unconformity / Reg Saner
Mother Tongue / Amy Tan
At the Buffalo Bill Museum
June/ Jane Tompkins
On being white, female, and born in Bensonhurst / Marianna De Marco Torgovnick
Questions of conquest / Mario Vargas Llosa
The killing game / Joy Williams
Biographical notes
Notable essays of.