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“A great collection of many great works that keep students and teachers alike intrigued! ”
Michael U wrote this review Monday, February 4 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Something about the title and cover of this anthology set off a "fear" response-- somehow I thought it would be dry, but nothing could be further from the truth! Phillip Lopate selects what he considers the finest writing, in order to illustrate the development of the form of the personal essay. In essence, he's done the work for me.
dframe wrote this review Tuesday, September 4 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Pushing myself to read for an assignment, I found myself madly in love with many essays, and curiously engaged with almost every writer represented, including works translated from Japanese and Greek. I found myself reading aloud several essays-- my children were so mesmerized by the cadences of G.K.Chesterton's "A Piece of Chalk" and Virginia Woolf's "Street Haunting" that they didn't interrupt me once! I've always seen F.Scott Fitzgerald as someone entirely "other," but "The Crack-Up" is an amazing confession. How would I have known where to start with M.F.K. Fisher, on the time budget of an MFA student? So I've learned about caviar, about a hashish trip, about a political fast in a prison. These essays give me a place to begin.
By far the most breath-taking piece is "Street Haunting." It makes me ask if I should ever type another word. I can't decide if I should re-read it six times a day, or shred it from the book and pretend it doesn't exist, so I don't have something magnificent with which to compare my own writing. Good thing I have a healthy respect for library books!.”
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