The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 1

by Lee Gutkind

The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 1

published

July 23rd 2007 by W. W. Norton

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binding

Paperback, 320 pages

isbn

0393330036 (isbn13: 9780393330038)

description

Narrative nonfiction at its cutting-edge best from writers at the cusp of recognition and fame.

Lee Gutkind, proclaimed the "Godf...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 159)

All ratings | 5 stars (17) | 4 stars (33) | 3 stars (25) | 2 stars (8) | 1 star (1) | avg 3.68

all | this edition

sydney

sydney rated it:

01/03/08

Read in December, 2007

Sometimes I get bored reading nonfiction- but this book lived up to its name. I really enjoyed Eula Biss' "The Pain Scale" (comparing her experience of chronic pain to the numeric "pain scale" they use to quantify pain in medical settings), Rebecca Skloot's "The Truth about Cops and Dogs" (her investigation into a pack of abused wild dogs that tore her pet dog to pieces and terrorized her Manhattan neighborhood), and Heather Sellers' "Tell Me Again Who Are You?...more

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Chris

Chris rated it:

07/16/08

Read in July, 2008

A mixed bag. The editor, Lee Gutkind, has clearly labored in assembling such a varied collection. The presentation is great: appealing and understated cover design, thoughtful introduction, etc. Gutkind subscribes to a notion that the most exciting writing comes from new faces, unafraid to push and even break down conventional notions of the form. There are no big names, and there shouldn't be: It's all about experimentation.

But as wi...more A mixed bag. The editor, Lee Gutkind, has clearly labored in assembling such a varied collection. The presentation is great: appealing and understated cover design, thoughtful introduction, etc. Gutkind subscribes to a notion that the most exciting writing comes from new faces, unafraid to push and even break down conventional notions of the form. There are no big names, and there shouldn't be: It's all about experimentation.

But as with most experiments, there are a number of duds, particularly the anonymous blog entries that, to me, hardly seem noteworthy and are certainly not groundbreaking (or, in Gutkind's words, "rough and raw... piercing and provocative"); they're more reminiscent of teenagers' over-emotive, hyper-personal LiveJournal posts. Nearly all of the best selections — at least, those I liked most — were taken from literary journals, and moreover, while some writers successfully played with the form, there's nothing here that hasn't been done before.

The inclusion of a piece (Monica Hsuing Wojcik's "The Woot Files") from an undergraduate creative nonfiction class is a nice touch, but the content of the piece (which is an outsider's examination of the phenomenon of "leetspeak", told through the tired-seeming gimmick of alternating between first-person expert narrative and instant-message threads) is emblematic of a generation gap regarding just how (un)interesting it is to break the traditional format of nonfiction. Did my parents' generation suffer from book after loathsome book of tedious, direct, non-narrative nonfiction — and would that explain why forms of writing that attempt to "subvert" (too strong a word, I feel) this structure are inherently thrilling?

Another work included, "Tell Me Again Who Are You?" by Heather Sellers, is a first-person account of a fascinating disorder, prosopagnosia — the inability to distinguish faces. But Sellers' style is rough and curt, suggesting either that she's not a trained writer (and was therefore included because Gutkind believes it's the story, not the quality of the writing that matters), or, more likely based on the explanation she gives before the story for why she uses creative nonfiction, that Sellers adopts a colloquial, simple, and easily impressed persona for this piece — appearing that she's quite inexperienced as a writer — in order to manufacture attention for herself (which seems both dishonest and not really nonfiction) and play up her non-elite upbringing in an industry filled with Ivy League degrees (again seeking undue attention). This is unsettling.

After reading collections like this, I'm left feeling that the best creative nonfiction works within the system — that is, at least within the system as it's already been broken down by creative writers of the last 40 years ("New Journalism" or whatever you want to call it). Sure, some of the pieces in here are fascinating or clever, but attempting to redefine this pseudo-genre in a way that prefers experimentation and inexperience to craft and quality appears to be wholly unsuccessful. Gutkind's message in the introduction would sadly be more convincing without the rest of the anthology....less

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Mike

Mike rated it:

03/22/08

bookshelves: essays, lit-journalism, memoir, nonfiction

Read in March, 2008

My gripe with this anthology is the same gripe I have with almost everything the Creative Nonfiction people are associated with. So much of what they represent is dense with a kind of still, big-L literature artifice that weighs the work down. It's almost formulaic and repetitive in some ways.

Take for instance Eula Biss' "The Pain Scale" and Bonnie J. Rough's "Notes on the Space We Take". Both are very good...more My gripe with this anthology is the same gripe I have with almost everything the Creative Nonfiction people are associated with. So much of what they represent is dense with a kind of still, big-L literature artifice that weighs the work down. It's almost formulaic and repetitive in some ways.

Take for instance Eula Biss' "The Pain Scale" and Bonnie J. Rough's "Notes on the Space We Take". Both are very good essays, and explore grim territory--Biss uses a numbered scale to take on her own chronic pain, and Rough strings together a melancholy meditation on covering real estate--in a very literary, almost cold, stanza-like fashion. But placed together in the same book, they do the same kind of work, and it becomes grating. Why not just choose one, then move on to different styles and sensibilities? Those are just two of the many selections that are of that stand-off-ish mode.

My other issue is with Lee Gutkind's nonfiction-for-Dummies introductory paragraphs, like with Sunshine O'Donnell's "Consumption," when he writes: "like other pieces collected in this anthology, this is written as a kind of montage, a style also called segmented, snapshot, or collage writing."

This kind of name-tagging might be useful for college level intro classes. But its this kind of commodification (another Gutkind buzz word is "immersion piece" instead of profile) that make the genre feel dodgy, pretentious and weird. And also goes against the idea that creative nonfiction is a genre-bending platform that by nature defies any label other than "not fiction." I always get the sense that Gutkind is trying very hard to make a literary genre some kind of club, and these categories are a way for him develop some unnecessary secret language. I've never once heard any other essayist or journalist I know use the word "immersion."

Big points, however, for reaching out to blogs and publishing their posts in this collection. The biggest strength of nonfiction--"creative" or not--is its trade-like, blue-collar, "people of the world, reporting that world" nature; how it presents palatable information in addition to all the artsy-fartsy-ness. And the voice-driven, non-nonsense blog posts from sites like Waterrant and Opinionistas show that side of the genre so much more effectively than the too-heavy, emotionally over-enunciated essay selections....less

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Abby

Abby rated it:

03/10/08

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Abby by: Samantha

I finished this book while out of town and then immediately lent it to someone to read "The Pain Scale." So, I can't write the thorough review of it I wanted to, but will hopefully do so when I get the book back.

Overall the book was better than I expected, but uneven as compilations usually are. There were a number of gems, of which "The Pain Scale" (as mentioned below) was the best, plus a memoir of a high-class prostitute, a student seducing former professor story tol...more

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Nana

Nana rated it:

08/19/08

Read in August, 2008

recommended to Nana by: a bookstore in the haight
recommends it for: nonfictioners

this is one of the best collections of creative nonfic i've read in a long while. i suppose lee gutkind's involvement has everything to do with the quality of work that was included; to be sure, there were some duds, but on the whole it reminded me why i have such an affinity for this particular genre. from discussions of prospagnosia (the inability to remember faces) to stories of life as a high-end call girl and and explication of the SARS epidemic (that one was especially, and strangely, poig...more

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Lisi

Lisi rated it:

02/23/08

Read in February, 2007

I received this book for Christmas and then read it in Puerto Rico. It was perfect for my short attention span on the beach.

North Pole, South Pole, Sea of Carcinoma was an essay written by Dev Hathaway about the last year of her life after receiving a diagnosis of renal cancer (a bad deal). I have always wondered what the patient feels, because I think the experience is often sugar coated or medicalized.

My favorite story in this book, by far, was The Truth about Cops and Dogs. It...more

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Catherine

Catherine rated it:

08/13/08

bookshelves: book-club

Read in July, 2008

Reading anthologies, you're bound to enjoy some stories over others, but this batch was very disappointing. I would rate only about 25% of the stories worthy of "Best." I'm not a fan of stream of consciousness writing and/or poetic prose, and this book featured several pieces of that type.

Among the more enjoyable chapters were Carol Smith's "The Cipher in Room 214," Debra Marquart's "Chores," Eula Biss's "The Pain Scale," Rebecca Skloot's "The T...more

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Jennifer

Jennifer rated it:

03/05/08

Read in March, 2008

Well, I guess this just proves that non-fiction essays (especially so many at once) are not for me. I started with the best of intentions, but soon I was skimming and skipping and ready to move onto something more fictional. There's an early essay on a pack of wild city dogs attacking and basically trying to eat a smaller non-wild dog that is very good.

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Kelly

Kelly rated it:

09/10/07

bookshelves: currently-reading

Read in July, 2007

I am one of the bloggers that appeared in the book...but I have to say that I really enjoyed the whole thing. I think that they did a good job at representing the genre...although I am curious to hear what other people think about how they offset the blogging pieces with a different type. I am on the fence.

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Michelle

Michelle rated it:

08/11/07

bookshelves: recentlyread

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: anyone

I just finished this a day or two ago. It was actually really good. Tons of different and interesting topics. Some really pieces. Some were boring as fuck but most of them were pretty cool. I liked the style of the ones that were originally blogs the best but all of the styles were interesting.

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Max

Max rated it:

01/24/08

Read in December, 2007

Great; not sure why some of it is considered to be "the best," but a really good perspective on the craft of nonfiction as it stands these days, in print and on the web. Lots of funny and insightful tales, and a lot of consideration for the place of truth in narrative entertainment.

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Heather

Heather rated it:

11/14/08

Read in February, 2008

I bought this to entertain me during a four-day vacation; I finished it within the first plane ride. Obviously, I'm a big non-fiction fan, and the short stories in this book range from funny to terrifying to schmaltzy to heartbreaking. The best part? They're all TRUE.

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Jen

Jen rated it:

02/12/08

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: Pretentious people who pretend to like crappy writing

A lot of the essays were total pretentious crap, which really sucked because, due to my love of creative nonfiction and the beautiful, beautiful cover art, I had high expectations. Read The New Kings of Nonfiction instead. I promise, this isn't very good.

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Justin

Justin rated it:

08/25/08

Despite the occasional odd selection, this is an excellent anthology of contemporary creative nonfiction. Karl Taro Greenfeld's fascinating essay "Wild Flavor" makes it more than worth the price of admission.

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Stepha

Stepha rated it:

10/30/07

bookshelves: favorites

Read in October, 2007

Interesting approach to creative nonfiction by incorporating a blog as an essay, which wasn't my favorite, but there are two pieces so wonderful and insightful that the level of the compilation itself is raised.

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Laurel

Laurel rated it:

05/23/08

Read in April, 2008

This is a book I have enjoyed having by my bedside at night. The stories are usually fairly short and insightful, and the book includes a range of narrative styles and topics.

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Emily

Emily added it

01/11/08

Read in January, 2008

Thanks to Alicia for lending me this book after I was sucked in by a story called "The Truth About Cops and Dogs" on the floor of Iota a few nights ago! Loving it so far.

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Erin

Erin rated it:

09/23/07

bookshelves: nonfiction

Read in September, 2007

As with most anthologies, a mixed bag, perhaps slightly better than average, but I really like these types of stories. Worth reading if you do too.

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Jess B

Jess B rated it:

11/18/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

Addictive, creative, interesting. Reminds me of the style of This American Life and RadioLab on public radio. My new favorite genre.

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Jennifer

Jennifer rated it:

10/13/08

bookshelves: non-fiction

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in August, 2008

Kind of disappointing overall. But there were a few stand-out pieces, esp. "The Truth about Cops and Dogs" by Rebecca Skloot.

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avg rating (all editions): 3.68 (84 ratings)
number of reviews: 26

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