The Best American Essays 2000

by Robert Atwan (Editor), Alan Lightman (Editor)

Best-selling author Alan Lightman selects the year’s finest nonfiction as this acclaimed series celebrates its fifteenth year. He has chosen a diverse, very personal collection that celebrates the essay as an independent genre unlike any other. This year’s pieces embrace stylistic freedom and strong opinions and afford the reader a fascinating view of the writer’s mind as it struggles with truth, memory, and experience. Featured writers include Jamaica Kincaid, Edward Hoagland, Cynthia Ozick, Mary Gordon, Edwidge Danticat, and others.

Genres: Essays, Anthologies, Nonfiction, Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 26, 2000

About the author

Robert Atwan has been the series editor of The Best American Essays since its inception in 1986. He has edited numerous literary anthologies and written essays and reviews for periodicals nationwide.

Reviews

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

21 amazing essays, all very different, addressing different subject matter in intriguingly different ways. Some of the pieces are scarily prescient (Earth's Eye by Edward Hoagland, What's So Bad About Hate? by Andrew Sullivan), some pissed me off (The Joys of Victimhood by Ian Buruma), some I marveled at (Gray Area: Thinking with a Damaged Brain by Floyd Skloot). A worthwhile read.

[Chrisiant · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a pretty eclectic collection of essays, it was only to be expected that I had mixed results. There was a Wendell Berry essay that may just have changed my life (I'm definitely going to read more of him. I've had friends who recommended him for years and I never got around to it, but boy will I ever now). I wish I'd reviewed this before taking it back, because I'm going to forget the authors and which essay they belong to. There were some beautifully done explorations into various corners of the experience of dying. A memoir of a guy with a disease that eats holes in his brain - fascinating and well-written. An Indian woman takes on American food in the "if you are what you eat, then what am I?" mode. Andrew Sullivan makes a pretty compelling argument against the specific distinction of certain crimes as "hate crimes". The Peter Singer essay on how to save the world was a big turn off for me - it seemed like he was making tolerable points, but in obnoxious ways - I can't quite put my finger on why.

I would say this fell in the usual distribution of essay collections, maybe a bit higher. 3-4 I really enjoyed, 5 or so that were passably interesting, and another handful that I didn't really enjoy, and one or two I didn't even bother reading beyond the first page.

It's worth it for the Wendell Berry essay though...

[Bibliophile10 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best BAE volume from 1986-2000, perhaps the best one I've read yet (I still have several in the early 2000s to finish before I complete the series). Alan Lightman chose an impressive array of authors, subjects, and styles. Of the twenty-one essays, eleven I'd happily return to. To seven I gave single check marks (a.k.a. worth another read), to three I gave double check marks (a.k.a. very fine), and one (Scott Russell Sanders's "The Force of Spirit") received the elusive triple check mark (a.k.a. excellent). I'd read this collection several years ago for a class, but now that I've reread it, my admiration has only grown. Many BAE volumes contain a handful of good essays among a flock of stuffy, self-inflated, or tired ones, but this anthology excites me about the possibility of the essay and of words well said.

[Jerie Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite collection but still good. I read one a year - it's also interesting to get a perspective from years ago, in this case 24 years! Favorites were "The Last Time I Saw Paris" by Andre Aciman, kind of a through-the-looking-glass experience; "Gray Area: Thinking with a Damaged Brain" by Floyd Skloot, and memorably, "Rome: The Visible City" by Mary Gordon.

[Awtar · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Force of Spirit" & "Mistrust of Movements" are real keepers.