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  | The Best American Essays 2000
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 politically correct and lame | |
| This is the most disappointing collection of Best American Essays I have read in a decade. Most seemed included because they take a particular greeny-wishywashy-save the worldy point of view, not because they are outstandingly original or thoughtful meditations on their subjects. Some are pretentious (Jamaica Kincaid), most are just wet. Ian Buruma's on The Perils of Victimhood is about the only one that will stand the test of time. | |
 Same old same old trendy lefty PC rubbish | |
| If you listen to NPR you'll love this collection of soothing nothings from your old pals. If you loathe NPR you'll wonder where the controversy, contrast and color is. Editors could not seem to find anything at all worthwhile from Reason, National Review, Weekly Standard, American Spectator, etc. which do publish excellent essays. So we are forced to read essays by little would-be commissars who would like the power to dictate what is in all our lives a necessity and what a luxury. Andrew Sullivan's piece is the only thought-provoking one in the book and look at all the amazement it has elicited from the other reviewers. Save your dough. Save your time. This whole waste is the ultimate example of preaching to the choir. | |
 Great essays - not perfect, but a joy to read | |
| Great writing! Lightman's introduction falls below the talent of the essayists, but it is colorful nonetheless, and I like the simplicity with which he explains why he chose these pieces: "I can make no claims that these twenty-one pieces were the 'best essays' of the past year . . . it is inevitable that some essays will have slipped by the editors' notice, even very good ones . . . What I can say is that I liked all of these essays a great deal, they made me think, they got under my skin, they took me on journeys, they made me feel alive." They did the same to me. Andrew Sullivan's "What's so Bad About Hate?" challenges some of our prevalent beliefs about what hate is - why we conveniently define hatred by the victim (e.g. sexism and racism b/c victims are hated on the basis of gender and race, respectively), and whether hatred geared towards a specific group - such as anti-Semitism or racial prejudice - is really any more reprehensible than hatred in general. The essay's last line may strike some as a bit cynical or comformist, but it makes us think: "For all our rhetoric, hate will never be destroyed. Hate, as our predecessors knew better, can merely be overcome." Another good one is Edwidge Danticat's "Westburry Court." After reading it I purchased her novel "Breath Eyes Memories," also pretty good. (Note to reviewer G. Merrill: Danticat is very much a "she" not a "he"). Greeta Kothari's "If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?" is a creative portrayal of the struggle to remain faithful to one's culture while trying also to "fit in"; I liked it mainly because it is so detailed and the writing is very colorful. Well, if I go on with every essay, I'll far exceed the 1,000 word maximum that Amazon allows us amateur raters. So read the book and judge the 'em for yourself. | |
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