Edited
by Dave Eggers
This was prominently right in front of the cashier
at Barnes & Noble as a total impulse-buy. Yeah, it worked. I didn't
really like the intentionally haphazard cover, but several things won
me over – Dave Eggers's reputation, the quality of the Best American
series, and several of the pieces. I'm familiar with Dave Eggers from
his egocentric masterpiece, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,
and his literary journal, McSweeney's, which had a wonderful
They Might Be Giants issue last year. I also have several Best American books,
such as the best short stories, best poetry, best science writing, and
best essays, of various years. The series features a guest editor for
each volume. Eggers's eclectic sensibility is perfect for the first in
this new category.
The selections in this volume are seemingly random, but each is fascinating. They range from short satire from the ever-prescient Onion, to short fiction, to an article from Fast Food Nation about the food flavor industry, to a sequential art story reprinted from Optic Nerve.
Several pieces stand out. Rodney Rothman's hilarious My Fake Job is the (mostly) nonfiction reporting of his time spent posing as an employee during the dot-com bubble. The flavor industry article, Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good, is enthralling and a little shocking. (Even after removing the beef additives from their fries due to public backlash, McDonald's still flavors them to taste like beef.) The satire from the Onion, and Modern Humorist's "Jiving" With Your Teen, is great. Jenny Bitner's story of an artist reaching out to strangers, The Pamphleteer, is creative and touching. Meenakshi Ganguly's Generation Exile is a serious and informative look at India's cities of Tibetan exiles.
All of the works here reflect Egger's taste – a good thing in small doses, as Staggering Genius readers no doubt remember. I recommend reading these at random, and at different times, rather than straight through. Often I feel an obligation to wade through books in such a linear fashion that casually browsing one is an immense relief. If you're in the mood for some light reading, pick up this book – but don't feel that you have to.