The Best Reading, Period.

I love anthologies for a couple of reasons: the stories or articles are easily read in a short sitting and no matter how it was edited I usually find a couple of pieces I like.  Today I'm writing about one that sets a whole new standard. The Best American Nonrequired Reading of 2007, edited by Dave Eggers produced not just a couple of passable stories, but an entire volume of the most thought-provoking powerful writing I've ever encountered.

The premise is simple – San Francisco high school students scour through literary magazines, independent publications, and on-line journals for articles, stories, vignettes, and memoirs that they consider the best.  They share their findings with each other and with their editor, Dave Eggers, until they've parsed it down to a few pieces to publish in this NonRequired Reading volume. 

Who would've thought that high schools students would have the ability to spot stories to move me emotionally.  Me, a jaded forty-one year old man who heaps cynicism on top of his morning cereal the way some spoon out blueberries, or sugar.  But they did.  Story after article after first-hand account all pulled emotions from me and sat stewing in my mind for days afterward.  There wasn't a bad one in the bunch.

The first section is assorted lists and memes, which I consider filler.  It was fun I suppose, but the heart of the book lies in Section Two. 

The best of it all was from my all-time favorite essayist, Scott Carrier.  He weaves an account of his time in Burma before the crackdown.  When reading it I was struck by the obvious – how could we have been surprised?

After that brilliance the next story that caused me to ponder for days after reading was by Lee Klein. He put our entire society into perspective with the most amazing sports essay I can remember reading since Joyce Carol Oates wrote about Mike Tyson.  His All Aboard the Bloated Boat: Arguments in Favor of Barry Bonds is required reading for anyone complaining about unfair competition in sports.

Another favorite was by Stephen Elliott who knows what it's like to be a thirteen year old boy, homeless, sleeping wherever misfortune allows, and by reading Where I Slept, I feel as if I have some understanding as well.

Others that stand out:  Joshua Clark brings the reader into New Orleans first hand for the disaster.  It's terrifying and mesmerizing simultaneously.   James Ames, a reporter from Spin penned a piece about being out of place at GothicFest 2005. In it he comes to an understanding of a new culture and appreciates it for what it is, not for how it's similar to what he knows.  Alison Bechdel's graphic comic tragedy is one of the finest pieces of writing I've seen in comic book form.  Well-known writer, Jennifer Egan was included with a piece of short fiction, Selling the General, that satirizes our P.R. obsession and makes me want to pick up one of her books. Also, Miranda July weaves a story as well-crafted and surprising as any I've read this year in How to Tell Stories to Children.  Finally Conan O'Brien's commencement speech to Stuyvesant High School is the best of its kind I ever heard.

Here is the table of contents from the Book's Second Section.

Jonathan Ames. Middle-American Gothic
Alison Bechdel. A Happy Death
D. Winston Brown. Ghost Children
Scott Carrier. Rock the Junta
Joshua Clark. American
Edge Foundation. What Is Your Dangerous Idea?
Jennifer Egan. Selling the General
Stephen Elliott. Where I Slept
Kevin A. González. Lotería
Miranda July. How to Tell Stories to Children
Matthew Klam. Adina, Astrid, Chipewee, Jasmine
Lee Klein. All Aboard the Bloated Boat: Arguments in Favor of Barry Bonds
Nam Le. Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice
Jen Marlowe, Aisha Bain, and Adam Shapiro. Darfur Diaries
David J. Morris. The Big Suck: Notes from the Jarhead Underground
Conan O'Brien. Stuyvesant High School Commencement Speech
Mattox Roesch. Humpies
Patrick Somerville. So Long, Anyway
Joy Williams. Literature Unnatured

Comments

[a rose is a rose]

it JUST went on MY list of required reading!

[CV Rick]

You won't be disappointed.