The Best American Essays 2005

by Susan Orlean (Editor), Robert Atwan (Series Editor)

The Best American series has been the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction since 1915. Each volume's series editor selects notable works from hundreds of periodicals. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the very best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected--and most popular--of its kind.

The Best American Essays 2005 includes

Roger Angell • Andrea Barrett • Jonathan Franzen • Ian Frazier • Edward Hoagland • Ted Kooser • Jonathan Lethem • Danielle Ofri • Oliver Sacks • Cathleen Schine • David Sedaris • Robert Stone • David Foster Wallace • and others

Susan Orlean, guest editor, is the author of My Kind of Place, The Orchid Thief, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup, and Saturday Night. A staff writer for The New Yorker since 1982, she has also written for Outside, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Vogue.

La vie en rose / Roger Angell --
The sea of information / Andrea Barrett --
Storm county / Paul Crenshaw --
Joyas voladoras / Brian Doyle --
Sister Bernadette's barking dog / Kitty Burns Florey --
The comfort zone / Jonathan Franzen --
If memory doesn't serve / Ian Frazier --
Against exercise / Mark Greif --
Small silences / Edward Hoagland --
Small rooms in time / Ted Kooser --
Speak, Hoyt-Schermerhorn / Jonathan Lethem --
Mastering the art of French cooking / E.J. Levy --
Contributor's note / Michael Martone --
My friend Lodovico / David Masello --
Living will / Danielle Ofri --
Dog days / Sam Pickering --
Speed / Oliver Sacks --
Dog trouble / Cathleen Schine --
Old faithful / David Sedaris --
Six seconds / Paula Speck --
Skill display in birding groups / Bert O. States --
The prince of possibility / Robert Stone --
Dining with robots / Ellen Ullman --
Consider the lobster / David Foster Wallace --
Satin worship / Holly Welker

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Anthologies, Literature, Literary Fiction, Short Stories

292 pages, Hardcover

First published October 5, 2005

About the author

I'm the product of a happy and uneventful childhood in the suburbs of Cleveland, followed by a happy and pretty eventful four years as a student at University of Michigan. From there, I wandered to the West Coast, landing in Portland, Oregon, where I managed (somehow) to get a job as a writer. This had been my dream, of course, but I had no experience and no credentials. What I did have, in spades, was an abiding passion for storytelling and sentence-making. I fell in love with the experience of writing, and I've never stopped. From Portland, I moved to Boston, where I wrote for the Phoenix and the Globe, and then to New York, where I began writing for magazines, and, in 1987, published my first piece in The New Yorker. I've been a staff writer there since 1992.

Reviews

[Bibliophile10 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the highest-caliber BAEs I've read--and I've read most of them. According to my checkmark system (1 for good essays, 2 for great, 3 for stupendous), 10 of the essays Susan Orlean chose received 1 checkmark, 2 ("The Sea of Information" and "Consider the Lobster") received 2, and 1 (Brian Doyle's gut-puncher "Joyas Voladoras") received the rare 3. All in all, 13 of the 25 essays I'd read again.

Here are my top five favorite BAEs thus far (I've read 1986-2005 and 2012-2014):

#5: 2012 ed. by David Brooks
#4: 2003 ed. by Anne Fadiman
#3: 2002 ed. by Stephen Jay Gould
#2: 2005 ed. by Susan Orlean
#1: 2000 ed. by Alan Lightman

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian Doyle's "Joyas Voladoras" is a gem. I enjoy Andrea Barrett's style. Oliver Sacks is always fascinating, and David Sedaris is fun in small doses, so it's nice to have a single essay here. I can't seem to get David Foster Wallace's "Consider the Lobster" out of my head--a unique essay for Gourmet Magazine.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

back on my nonfiction reading grind

Joyas Voladoras by Brian Doyle – short n sweet, all the tinies and gigantics that make up this world so full of heart
Against Exercise by Mark Greif – Quuuite interesting and some food for thought
My Friend Lodovico – Love this slightly surreal story and the Dorian Gray-esque-ness of it all
Dog Trouble by Cathleen Schine – Wow this made me sad! Crazy intro, an odd tragicomedy
Old Faithful by David Sedaris – Love quiet love
Six Seconds by Paula Speck – Really well-written

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topics of the essays in this collection vary wildly. I like essays and figured it'd be a great way to delve in and discover new writers. Yes and no. It was grueling slogging my way through essays that didn't resonate with me and consequently, it took me much longer than usual to finish reading the book.

However, when I connected with an essay, it was a delight. There were several that have stayed with me, in particular David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster, Holly Welker's Satin Worship, Brian Doyle's Joyas Voladoras, and Kitty Burns Florey's Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog.

I'm glad I read it and the variety is admirable.

[D. Miles]

Notable essays here:

1. Paul Crenshaw -- Storm Country
2. Jonathon Franzen -- The Comfort Zone
3. Edward Hoagland -- Small Silences
4. Ted Kooser -- Small Rooms in Time
5. Jonathon Lethem -- Speak, Hoyt-Schermerhorn
6. Danielle Ofri -- Living Will
7. David Sedaris -- Old Faithful
8. Robert Stone -- The Prince of Possibikity
9. David Foster Wallace -- Consider The Lobster

[Chloë · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel strange giving this a review as I feel that many of the essays had more relevance or intrigue at the time they were published (i.e the Great year, A.K.A my birth year), but so many of them just felt sort of, not contrived but just, idk, didn’t serve so much of a function. I thought the essays felt heartfelt, but didn’t so much make any beneficial claims that rise above surface-level.

[Edie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with most any collection of essays (or stories), there were some essays I loved and some I liked and a few I struggled to get through. It was a valuable reminder that essays can be thought provoking or enlightening or funny.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Y'know, it's a collection of different authors, so some you'll love, others you'll like, and few will bother you.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't like or finish every single essay, but I love being exposed to such a variety of writing from a variety of sources.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great essays!

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read these essays one a day.

[Anna Persky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This compilation by Susan Orlean was the best I have read so far. Favorites include essays written by Brian Doyle, Ian Frazier, Kitty Burns Florey, Ted Kooser, David Sedaris, and Jonathan Franzen.

[Jenni V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any collection of essays, especially by different authors, there will be some hits and some misses. I gave this book 3 stars because it seemed to be pretty evenly divided between the two. I jotted down a few words about each essay as I was reading and will include them now.

La Vie en Rose - didn't get invested or interested.

The Sea of Information - To quote the essay, "So what is it, then, that I'm trying to say?" I wondered the same thing even after I read the whole thing.

Storm Country - really good, descriptive writing. I felt like I was there.

Joyas Voladoras - short but good.

Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog - I'm not familiar with diagramming sentences. It looks confusing but kind of fun at the same time.

The Comfort Zone - surprisingly long but kept my interest.

If Memory Doesn't Serve - cute story that I really enjoyed reading. It reminded me of the time before Google when I had to sit and see if the answer to a question would pop into my head suddenly.

Against Exercise - I like the title right off the bat. Interesting thoughts but a long way to say it. I loved the line, "Nothing can make you believe we harbor nostalgia for factory work but a modern gym."

Small Silences - too long and meandering. I don't disagree with his viewpoint of the need for preserving nature and animals but a lecture didn't feel right coming from a guy who made his observations while working in circuses.

Small Rooms in Time - My favorite! Like all good ones, I felt it was over too quickly. Really vivid.

Speak, Hoyt-Schermerhorn - tough one to get through. Must have an interest in subways to enjoy this essay and living in Iowa, I don't even have basic knowledge of them.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking - really, really good. It covered her life in a way that felt light but was very revealing.

Contributor's Note - original topic but universal when thinking of all the readings I've watched.

My Friend Lodovico - cute, easy read.

Living Will - I was invested.

Dog Days - reminded me of a Sunday NPR story. Nice and easygoing.

Speed - boring and long.

Dog Trouble - very descriptive. I can't imagine putting that much effort in.

Old Faithful - I feel like I've read this essay before. I loved the description of someone that is dramatic when sick as, "A tiny splinter works itself into his palm and he claims to know exactly how Jesus must have felt on the cross."

Six Seconds - fascinating and depressing.

Skill Display in Birding Groups - boring.

The Prince of Possibility - someone may enjoy this essay but that someone isn't me.

Dining with Robots - boring.

Consider the Lobster - footnotes are very overused. I learned a fun fact: lobster was only eaten by poor people until the 1800's since they were so easily found and was definitely not considered fancy like it is today. In fact, "some colonies had laws against feeding lobsters to inmates more than once a week because it was thought to be cruel and unusual, like making people eat rats."

Satin Worship - meh.

Quote from the Book
"That [essays] continue to be written and read is enduring proof that, all indications to the contrary, our voices matter to each other; that we do wonder what goes on inside each other's heads; that we wan to know each other, and we want to be known. Nothing is more meaningful - more human, really - than our efforts to tell each other the story of ourselves, of what it's like to be who we are, to think the things we think, to live the lives we live."

Find all my reviews at: https://readingatrandom.blogspot.com

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw this on a display rack at the library, Susan Orlean's name caught my eye because I really liked The Orchid Thief, and there turned out to be several writers in the collection whose names I recognized. I particularly wanted to read the Oliver Sacks essay, and was interested to check out the selections from David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, David Sedaris, and a few others. I enjoyed reading the collection, but it didn't really introduce me to any new writers I got especially excited about, and I was disappointed to find that the Oliver Sacks essay was just another revisitation of the Awakenings story of the post-encephalitic patients, with a slightly different angle (people's experience of time). David Foster Wallace's (predictably overlong and annotated) essay from Gourmet magazine may have been the most interesting one in spite of its length - he set out to review a lobster festival in Maine and ended up reflecting on animals' experience of pain and the need for the sort of people who read Gourmet magazine to reflect on the pain that goes into the food they eat. He doesn't make any judgment calls, just presents his research about what lobsters and other animals experience as they're boiled alive or otherwise killed, which I thought was a pretty interesting angle given the magazine it was published in. Overall, I don't regret reading this collection of essays, but there wasn't much that was exceptional about it, and it's not really worth seeking out to read when there are so many better books of essays out there.

[Mandi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this collection. I like essays, but I didn’t like a majority of those selected for this compilation. I only continued to read because I fell in love with Andre Barrett’s “The Sea of Information” (originally published in The Kenyon Review), all about the love of research and reading nonfiction, which I completely related to and found her take fascinating. It’s placement as the second essay is what kept me reading.

What I didn’t like was that few really grabbed me. I read, hoping for more. So many of the essays were simply okay. There was a lot of beautiful language, but in the end I didn’t feel a connection to anything bigger or greater.

The other exceptions of ones I enjoyed were: Jonathan Franzen’s “The Comfort Zone” (originally published in The New Yorker) reflects on the psychology of children, so I loved it. E.J. Levy’a “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” (originally published in Salmagundi) reflects on her mother’s desire for passion and how it impacted the author’s relationships. Also enjoyable in a second-string sort of way were Cathleen Schine’s “Dog Trouble” (originally published in The New Yorker), and Paula Speck’s “6 Seconds” (originally published in Meridian). Dog Trouble was entertaining and I’m sure a hit for big canine lovers. I wanted to stop and reflect afterwards on 6 Second, which is what I had hoped for going into it, but ultimately there was something lacking. It did raise a worthwhile question on death though.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I figure these should all get three stars if they're doing their thing right. I heard Seth Meyers describe a perfect episode of SNL as one with 3 things that make you belly-laugh, three things you hate viscerally, and some filler. Essay collections are largely the same, and this one may actually be better than many.

As for the keepers:

"Consider the Lobster" by DFWallace is the "with us for years to come" winner here.

"Speak, Hoyt-Schermerhorn" by Jonathan Lethem is a fantastic meditation on place and place-memory--in this case, a subway station.

"Joyas Voladoras" by Brian Doyle (excerpted from The Wet Engine) is an exploration of the heart-as-machine and how it works in hummingbirds and whales that manages to drop some science yet still bathe the whole thing in magic.

"The Prince of Possibility" by Robert Stone is a remembrance of Ken Kesey and a sojourn to Mexico that's well worth the time.

Ted Kooser's "Small Rooms in Time" stayed with me for days despite (seemingly) making a light impression as I read it, which is pretty damned Kooserian of him.

Most of the collection was readable and reasonably rewarding, the the stuff that didn't blow my skirt up at least had the courtesy to announce itself as dismissible within a page or two. First time I've read one of these all the way through, but it was enough fun that I'm on to the 2010 now.

[Kelly Ferguson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this because of the 6 authors whose work I love, thinking this would be a great way to provide an anthology for my class. The problem is while I still love these authors, these essays aren't my favorite work by these authors. And too many dog essays. I get it. Orlean is a dog person. Although one of my favorites was about about a woman's trauma adopting a problem dog that she had to put down. Since a friend of my mine's dog was recently attacked and killed by such a dog, I had less sympathy for the author's will to reform Buster, and felt more like her relatives thinking the owner is the one who needs therapy. Still, here I am still writing about that essay, so it must have inspired debate in my mind. It captured the soft-hearted person's dog dilemma. If you adopt from the shelter—you might get a problem dog. But if you adopt from a breeder, you might get a dog with inbred health problems, and why create more dogs when all these loveable dogs are being gassed.

Well, enough on that. But my parting thought is this collection did leave me wondering. Of ALL the essays published in 2005, were these really the BEST?

[Chazzbot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great essays here from David Sedaris and David Foster Wallace.

I like magazines. So when I started reading this collection, I came up with the bright idea of reading the essays in their original published form; that is, reading them in the magazines in which they were first published. At the time, I subscribed to a number of the periodicals featured in this collection: The New Yorker (the source of six essays here), The American Scholar, Harper's, and The Atlantic. So, basically, this collection provided a good excuse to read a bunch of magazines I had laying around anyway. For that, in addition to the variety of subject matter and authors to be found in these annual anthologies, I find this collection worthy.

I found it somewhat curious that, for an essay collection edited by a woman, only 7 out of the 22 essays included here are by female authors (including a terribly boring account of a Mormon woman's obsession with fabric).

Anyway, these collections are always fairly reliable if you like essays. You're bound to find something you like. If not, why would you pick this up in the first place?

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again I find that I enjoy these collections of essays much more than I have the collections of short fiction.

Of the collection, only a couple essays were skim-worthy. Most were quite enjoyable, and a few stood out as quite captivating. Notable were: "If Memory Doesn't Serve" (which had me grinning from ear to ear in familiarity); "Contributor's Note" (which I greatly enjoyed as being particularly clever); "My Friend Lodovico" (for it's passion for an inanimate object); "Speed" (which rang so true to me, having had my own forrays into this phenomenon); and "Satin Worship" (this didn't strike me, based on its subject, but it spoke well to a person's passion for something, and it was that passion to which I identified).

This series is, so far, highly recommended.

[Pranav Mutatkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to judge an essay collection, but overall pretty strong pieces in here. Joyas Voladoras by Brian Doyle blew me away, a short piece that packed a lot of heart that most essays find difficult to do. I also really enjoyed Sea of Information by Andrea Barrett and Mastering the Art of French Cooking by E.J. Levy. Oliver Sacks was good and Sedaris good in his light, amusing way especially in this short of a piece.

David Foster Wallace had one of his great short stories in here which of course can't be understated. They were a couple other interesting ones, but those are the ones that really stood out. I would recommend you peruse this if you are interested in essays.

[Tamara Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The collection from 2005 included only a few titles I didn't really enjoy, a few I'd only consider mildly enjoyable and a few I wish I could memorize because the words made me so happy. A few authors I'd read before -- Jonathan Franzen, David Sedaris, David Foster Wallace. Many I had not -- Andrea Barrett, Ian Frazier, Edward Hoagland, Ted Kooser and more. As it turns out, most of my favorite essays came to me from previously unknown writers.

See my favorite excerpt at my full review here: http://blog.thissacramentallife.com/2...

[Niña Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

came across this book in our library and borrowed it for a some light reading. The essays have catchy titles which made me want to read them right away. Some essays were quite an interesting read but were also a little too long for me to grasp what the main idea really is. There were a few quotable quotes as well. for example:
"[in a photo, the subjects are] plunged into an atmosphere of equivocal artificiality..."...oh well..just something for those who have a love for words =)

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to say only a few essays in this collection resonated with me. "Dinner with Robots" ended up really intriguing me. When I saw the title and that the author was a computer programmer, I was not looking forward to the essay. I was pleasantly surprised, however. It's one of the few in the collection that has stuck with me.

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you know about this series? (There is also BA Short Stories, etc). Great way to keep up on more contemporary writing w/o reading everything in sight. There is a fantastic essay in here called "Speed" about human perception of time--so cool.

Do watch for who is editing. The Garrison Keeler year was a travesty! (who likes him?)

[Laura Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ashleigh made me buy this book. Never been a big reader of essays or short stories but oh this book has some great ones which I really enjoyed! My favorite ever was Joyas Voladoras by Brian Doyle--gets me choked up and moved every time I read it. And some truly hilarious stories, like Dog Trouble by Cathleen Shine, and of course anything by David Sedaris.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I returned to this one for a while. Some real gems are hidden in there. Particularly the last three essays: "Dining with Robots," by Ellen Ullman; "Consider the Lobster," by David Foster Wallace; and "Satin Worship," by Holly Welker. I may have already read this one, but I'll keep rereading it to.

[~Geektastic~]

Pre-reading notes

Found this for 50 cents at the used book store. Will it be any good? I have no idea, but 50 cents!! Even if there is only 1 good essay in here, it will be worth the money. And as I haven't brought myself to read anything by David Foster Wallace yet, maybe his contribution to this collection will give me an idea of whether I should try (or not).

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stronger collection than 2004; I'd give it 3 1/2 stars if I could. Highlights are the gorgeous "Joyas Voladoras," the resonant "Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog," and the sprawling "Speak, Hoyt-Schermerhorn."

[priya bhayana · Rating 3 out of 5]

read most of the essays in this book for a nonfiction writing course. some were amazing, i question the inclusion of others. i've read other "best american series" compilations and they're great reading for the most part

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun to read compilation. A great way to find new writers, some have me absolutely rolling off the couch laughing, others I can hardly bear.

Favorites so far:
Consider the Lobster
Sedaris
Oliver Sacks