My favorites from this collection: Marie Mutsuki Mockett's "Letter from a Japanese Crematorium", Dawnelle Wilkie's "What Comes Out", Sean Rowe's piece on jail/prison food, Tim Bascom's "Community College", dbdsn's "No Other Joy". ( )

some very strange reviews! i thought generally this was a very solid collection. ( )

I'm a bit disappointed in this issue of Best Creative Nonfiction. Although it has 25 essays, it's only 235 pages long, is Norton cutting costs by reducing page count? It looks wispy on the shelf next to last years whale-like Vol.2 and whispers forebodings about the series future. Reinforcing it's dark mood, there are only a handful of essays that stand out as being good enough to mark as favorites.

Part of the problem, I believe, is the selection committee which appears to be dominated by academic women. Almost every essay falls into two camps: the minority identity politics essay (handicap, women, black, gay, etc..) or the dysfunctional family history essay (characterized by a woman retelling a story about their grandfather, mother, uncle, etc..). So we have "good for you" politics mixed with "feel good" sentiment. I think Gutkind should try for a more varied selection process or editorial staff. One suggestion is each issue have a Guest Editor that makes the selection from a sub-set chosen by the permanent editors, similar to the "Best American" series.

My four favorite essays were by Emily Rapp in "Okahandja Lessons" about a handicap woman who travels to Africa and learns handicapped people are looked on differently there than in America. In "The Face of Seung-Hui Cho", Wesley Yang writes probably the strongest essay of the book, about the 2007 shootings at Virgina Tech and how it feels to be a young Asian man in America. It has shades of Oscar Wao. Alice Dreger in "Lavish Dwarf Entertainment" gives a funny and enlightening romp through the world of dwarf entertainers. In the most dramatic piece, Gregory Orr in "Return to Hayneville" recounts his experience of being kidnapped and almost killed in Alabama during the 1960s as a Civil Rights protester. This is a great piece because it's a reminder that many young white people died in the South during that period. ( )

Here's the thing with creative nonfiction. Sometimes I love it, and sometimes I hate it. Some authors have a way of manipulating words and structure in such a way that I find new meaning in an old idea. Others seem like they're just trying too hard and I end up getting annoyed. So, I didn't expect to love every single piece in this book. And I was right. But on the balance, I liked more pieces than I didn't. In fact there were very few that I just couldn't get through. Well worth reading and I eagerly look forward to reading other volumes in the series. ( )

The key word is “creative” here. I’d love to pass on a few of these pieces to those who find nonfiction to be boring. No boring here. The styles are all over the place, from authors who appear to sit down quietly at their desks to those authors who seem to be scribbling on bathroom walls. ( )