PRINTA little bit of the best
These anthologies offer talent from different genres
December 13, 2007 | 12:00 a.m. CST
In an American literary field saturated with the nectar of blooming writers, readers can have a difficult time plucking a select few. It’s only fitting that the term anthology comes from the ancient Greek word for flower-gathering.
Since 1915, Houghton Mifflin’s Best American series has been the nation’s literary florist and now offers nine collections (each $14 in paperback or $28 in hardcover) of the year’s best writing published in North American periodicals. And though short stories, essays and poems are the carnations of the series, the following collections are the wildflowers found off the beaten path.
Comics
“Any good annual anthology should have a sort of desert island condensation to it,” guest editor Chris Ware writes in his introduction to The Best American Comics 2007. “Even if every single comic produced between August 2005 and August 2006 suddenly and mysteriously vaporized, this book should still at least hint at what was happening during those months.”
Ware’s desert-island benchmark sets a standard by which any volume in the Best American series can be measured. And for those who would rather be marooned with one of the more colorful selections of the series, Comics is the obvious book of choice. But don’t expect the kinds of superheroes and villains found in the pages of Marvel. Drawing largely from graphic novels, the Internet and periodicals spanning from The New Yorker to Mome quarterly, the collection is more about everyday absurdities and heroics of human beings.
As the newest addition to the series with its first volume published in 2006, the anthology is nothing less than a validation of comics as an art form. But with 39 contributors, including such established writers as Lynda Barry, R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman, there is little left to prove.
Mystery Stories
The reader whose life is lacking in suspense and thrills need look no further than The Best American Mystery Stories. But take note: With suspense comes death — by shotgun, bayonet or garage-door opener.
These mystery writers prove it’s possible to add humor to horror, as Kent Meyers does in the opening line of “Rodney Valen’s Second Life,” or humanize a hit man, as Lawrence Block does in “Keller’s Double Dribble.” And if St. Louis natives weren’t already convinced of the city’s reviled reputation for crime, Ridley Pearson’s “Queeny,” set in the Gateway City, will surely confirm it.
Even if crime is not a part of your balanced reading diet, you might want to give it a taste. As guest editor Carl Hiaasen duly notes: “Pulp is life. We are drawn to so-called mystery stories not only for anticipated thrills and surprises, but for the raw and reportorial light they shine on the human condition, which is mysterious indeed.”
This publication marks the 11th edition in the Mystery series, with writers including Joyce Carol Oates and Laura Lippman. Lesser-known authors such as Chris Adrian and Brent Spencer try to keep up with the established authors and offer their own chilling tales.
Science & Nature Writing
To the average American, reading about science and nature might be nothing more than a natural sedative. But Darwin and Thoreau can stop rolling in their graves because the Best American series proves that the natural world can entertain even the least science-savvy reader.
Following the age-old credo that “good writing is where you find it,” series editor Tim Folger and guest editor Richard Preston go far beyond Scientific American to present a variety of pieces that challenge the conventional definition of the genre. “The best science and nature writing, while seeing nature with precision, ultimately circles through human emotions and explores what we are as much as what nature is,” Preston writes in his introduction.
Highlights of the 28-piece collection include an account of run-ins with Kodiak brown bears, a tale from beyond the grave surmised from a medical autopsy and an essay on the how-to of nuclear bomb building. In two of the most surprising pieces, Jeffrey Lockwood relates insects to “The Nature of Violence,” and Jonathan Rauch makes video game designers into attractive (“sexy” would be an overstatement) characters by showing their willingness to challenge the status quo.
Nonrequired Reading
The oddball of the Best American series, Nonrequired Reading features a hodgepodge of material that doesn’t quite fit into other volumes. Brimming with odds and ends of the literary world, from a humorous high school commencement speech by Conan O’Brien to a Spin article about a Gothic music festival, this year’s anthology takes an unexpected turn with each page. An opening section of bizarre lists sets the tone with such topics as “Best American Names of Horses Expected to Have Undistinguished Careers.”
The collection is further set apart by its unusual selection process. Rather than one editor choosing material for publication, a committee of high school students in the San Francisco Bay area scours periodicals throughout the year and picks the best pieces to offer a fresh perspective.
As another appeal to young readers, a less-than-conventional writer pens the introduction for Nonrequired Reading. Past volumes include intros by Viggo Mortensen, Beck and Matt Groening. This year, songwriter Sufjan Stevens recounts a personal struggle with illiteracy that lasted until the third grade. Like every piece in the book, the introduction is neither here nor there but somehow appropriate to the collection.
