Above average, but definitely not the "Best."
An eclectic anthology of 55 essays chosen by Oates (Blonde, p. 11, etc.) comprising a generous selection of less known but deserving work from mostly big-name writers.
The collection is intended to be a greatest-hits volume of the 20th-century American essay and to stand as a companion to The Best American Essays franchise, which has been published annually since 1986. The essays included here cover the years from 1901 to 1997 and are arranged chronologically according to their original date of publication. In her introduction, Oates explains her ambitions as an editor: she tackled the project from the point of view of a literary conservator, trying to preserve worthy essays from the forgetfulness of history and vagaries of literary fashion. In order to make the task of selecting from a century's worth of writing manageable, Oates set out strict criteria: eliminating the work of writers who did not publish at least one volume of nonfiction during their career (thus ousting any one-hit-wonders), as well as those who wrote journalism or reportage. In this regard Oates self-consciously avoids creating a chronicle of the past century and, instead, collects an array of emotional journeys and obsessions. According to this formula, essays about of race and identity easily come to dominate: Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail," James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son," and Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" stand out. A further eight essays also take race as their topic. Other major themes include science and nature, social change, artistic endeavor, and the struggle against nostalgia. Browsing the titles indicates that only a few touchstone essays are included, although most selections have been extracted from nonfiction books whose titles are better known. As a whole, the anthology does not deliver on the grandiose promise of its title. Instead, it delivers the "Best" essays not frequently anthologized. With so few surprises and most of the selections coming from the usual suspects, the overall effect is underwhelming.
Above average, but definitely not the "Best."Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2000
ISBN: 0618155872
Page Count: 624
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2000
Delightful, welcome nostalgia for a sadly bygone era.
This vivid New York City cultural history records in photographs the story of the Third Avenue elevated train, launched in 1878 as one of the first lines in the city’s rapid-transit systems.
The author’s father, Lothar Stelter, took a myriad of photographs with his Contessa camera in the early ’50s, when he worked as a cable splicer for the New York Telephone Company. Those photos, displayed here a bit too small on each page, demonstrate how teeming and alive this route was in the lifeline of the city. The steam-powered elevated trains had to accommodate the rapid growth of New York at the turn of the century, comprising four routes from Lower Manhattan to 155th Street–though the Third Avenue line would gradually extend into the Bronx–and culminating in peak ridership by 1920, before the more efficient subways began to take over. A nickel fare (up until 1948) ensured its popularity. The Third Avenue El created a distinctive look along a busy thoroughfare, casting a trellis-like pattern onto the street from the overhead webbed ironwork, wooden catwalks and Victorian glasswork in the windows of the stations. The photographer captured the construction details beautifully, and in all kinds of weather, as passengers frozen in period suits and hats gaze down at the street crammed with DeSoto taxis, Studebakers and sidewalk vendors. Chapters follow the journey up Third Avenue, lined by pawn shops, antiques stores and Irish pubs, from Chinatown to Murray Hill to Yorkville to East Harlem. Former residents, shopkeepers and commuters fondly recall here the noisy train that brought them to the Automat at 42nd Street, Wankels Hardware at 88th Street or the Ruppert Brewery at 93rd Street. Next to these arresting images of the city’s history, views of today’s sleekly transformed Third Avenue–the El was demolished in the mid-’50s–seem soulless and monolithic.
Delightful, welcome nostalgia for a sadly bygone era.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9777220-1-3
Page Count: 132
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Poor Provence. Like some geographical cousin to the Golden Goose, it is sentenced to an eternity of laying golden eggs for Mayle (Up the Agency, 1993, etc.). In this extravagant book, Mayle teams up with Jason Hawkes, whose aerial photographs of vineyards, asymmetrically laid out French villes, marinas, freight yards, mountains, churches, and jet skis will put American readers where they like to be—above the French. Mayle's economical text is an arch accompaniment: ``One of the features of rural France is the manner in which the farmer shows his disapproval of the way the world is going...there is always something to upset him, and he often takes his revenge in messy and spectacular fashion. He dumps. He dumps melons on the steps of the Mairie, he dumps potatoes on the autoroute, he dumps cherries in the village fountain or, as he has done here, he dumps tomatoes on the banks of the Durance.'' The photo that accompanies this tribute to Gallic gall is quite spectacular, for, by a trick of perspective, the tomatoes, in varying stages of ripeness and color, look like a carnival of fungus climbing a rock.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-43564-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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