The Best American Essays 1997

by Frazier, Ian; Ward, Geoffrey C.; Atwan, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780395856949
• ISBN10: 0395856949
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-11-01
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

Each new volume of this acclaimed collection reflects the guest editor's distinctive taste and perspective. This year, Ian Frazier provides an unusually humorous and unpredictable selection, featuring essays by some of our most respected writers, including Susan Sontag, Roy Blount, Jr., and Thomas McGuane.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix	(4)
Robert Atwan
Introduction	xiii
Ian Frazier
HILTON ALS
Notes on My Mother from The New Yorker	1	(9)
JO ANN BEARD
The Fourth State of Matter from The New Yorker	10	(18)
ROY BLOUNT, JR
First Tell Me What Kind of Reader You Are from The Oxford American	28	(5)
BERNARD COOPER
Labyrinthine from The Paris Review	33	(4)
LOUIS DE BERNIERES
Legends of the Fall from Harper's Magazine	37	(9)
DEBRA DICKERSON
Who Shot Johnny? from The New Republic	46	(5)
RICHARD FORD
In the Face from The New Yorker	51	(5)
FRANK GANNON
Rat Patrol: A Saga from Harper's Magazine	56	(6)
DAGOBERTO GILB
Northeast Direct from The Threepenny Review	62	(5)
VERLYN KLINKENBORG
We Are Still Only Human from The New York Times Magazine	67	(3)
NATALIE KUSZ
Ring Leader from Allure	70	(5)
NATON LESLIE
Don't Get Comfortable from High Plains Literary Review	75	(13)
THOMAS MCGUANE
Twenty-Fish Days from Sports Afield	88	(5)
CULLEN MURPHY
Backlogs of History from The Atlantic Monthly	93	(5)
CYNTHIA OZICK
A Drugstore Eden from The New Yorker	98	(13)
LUKIE CHAPMAN REILLY
My Father from Under the Sun	111	(12)
LUC SANTE
Living in Tongues from The New York Times Magazine	123	(9)
PAUL SHEEHAN
My Habit from The New Yorker	132	(7)
CHARLES SIMIC
Dinner at Uncle Boris's from Creative Nonfiction	139	(5)
LAUREN SLATER
Black Swans from The Missouri Review	144	(18)
SUSAN SONTAG
A Century of Cinema from The New York Times Magazine	162	(6)
GAY TALESE
Ali in Havana from Esquire	168	(22)
LE THI DIEM THUY
The Gangster We Are All Looking For from The Massachusetts Review	190	(13)
JOY WILLIAMS
The Case Against Babies from Granta	203	(10)
Biographical Notes	213	(5)
Notable Essays of 1996	218