Best American Essays 1997

I read these annuals regularly from the '90s into the 2000s, even picking up the older editions back to the start in 1986. And it's still going—still under the oversight of Robert Atwan working with a different guest editor every year. This one is Ian Frazier, for example, who produced a collection that stood out to me as different from the rest. That's partly because it's one of the shortest of them all, with Frazier favoring quicker five-page pieces. He also favors humor more than most of the other editors in the series—humor always a tricky business in any literature. Not that there aren't serious pieces here—a shocking, oddly toned, and longer true-crime personal essay ("creative nonfiction") piece by Jo Ann Beard, a bitter story of gang violence by Debra Dickerson, an assessment by Susan Sontag of the state of cinema after a century, and more. My complaint about the series and the reason I finally abandoned it is that the "Best" came to seem suspect year in and year out, with a cast of too many returning writers. Frazier pointed it in a different and more interesting direction in 1997. Even though it has some of the usuals (Hilton Als, Richard Ford, Cynthia Ozick) there are lots of nice pieces that seem noticeably different from the usual fare. The first time I read this anthology, it was Beard's piece, "The Fourth State of Matter," that jumped out at me. It's still effective and quite well done, so vivid I still remembered it and thus the element of surprise was gone, and missed, alas. Luc Sante has an interesting piece about growing up in a bilingual household, with interesting details of his family history. I remember 1997 as a time when I was really taken with the personal essay. More of that view is ultimately what I think Frazier brought to his anthology. Frank Gannon's "Rat Patrol: A Saga" is an evocative memoir piece that morphs into a funny cautionary tale for parents. Dickerson's hard memories in "Who Shot Johnny?" are measured by personal grief. Lauren Slater's "Black Swans" traces her fascinating experiences with antidepressants. I want to say, to be clear, that all the Best American Essays annuals had redeeming and interesting essays that ranged broadly, as essays should—in tone, in theme, in language and style. The only difference here is that the proportion was higher for me, and there was not much I actively disliked, as could happen. Start here!

In case the library is closed due to pandemic, which is over.