Is it shameful to admit that I prefer the essays of some celebrated novelists to their fiction? I never completely warmed to Martin Amis’ gimlet-eyed satires like Money and London Fields, but I’ve read my copy of his essay collection The Moronic Inferno to tatters. And I routinely bypass my three-quarters-read Infinite Jest to once again page through David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster.
There are special pleasures to be had from dipping into a good collection of essays: variety, deep-dive specificity, the sensation of being spoken to directly by the author. The essay is the province of the voice; as always, Indieland is rife with distinctive voices and compelling, individualistic points of view. The following recent collections have caught our attention:
Sean Enfield’s Holy American Burnout! (2023) tackles issues of race, American history, and education. Enfield, a biracial millennial, pulls no punches: One piece in this collection surveys conservative memes featuring Martin Luther King Jr.—posted by Enfield’s white aunt. In a particularly painful episode, a teacher has a class bedazzle paper shackles with glitter and stickers as part of a lesson on enslaved Africans enduring the Middle Passage. Our reviewer praises Enfield as “a skilled wordsmith with a keen sense of American history and a deep appreciation for the Black intellectual tradition.”
The educational theme continues in The World From the Eighth Grade, in which former social studies teacher Richard Aston has compiled essays written anonymously by his eighth grade students, with no fear of reprisals or judgment, in 1969. Their extraordinary offerings are collected here, reflecting a dizzying array of voices that range from “the surprisingly insightful to the charmingly absurd.” These essays offer a rare, unguarded glimpse into the adolescent psyche (“I don’t know what I want to do. Maybe a dope peddler or a secret agent or a billionaire”)as well as a unique vantage from which to consider one of the most tumultuous eras in American history.
Moving from innocence to experience, Janet Benner’s Olders’ Voices (2023) gathers essays written by a group of respondents between the ages of 68 and 99. The pieces offer some expected advice (adults should call their elderly parents more often) as well as hard-won wisdom regarding loneliness, isolation, and failing health. While such subjects are inarguably bleak, the collection is buoyed by the writers’ overall sense of optimism and gratitude, and the book’s biggest takeaway—in the face of adversity, maintain flexibility—is worth its weight in gold. Our reviewer praises the “thought-provoking” entries for their “keep kicking” attitude.
Finally, Lawrence Shainberg’s Hot Hand Sutras (2023) offers an “absorbing and poignant exploration of the human brain,” per our reviewer. Shainberg, an accomplished writer, spent decades researching the workings of the human mind, publishing his findings in such august journals as the New York Times Magazine and Harper’s. The essays collected here cover such topics as athletic “hot streaks,” the practices of Zen and meditation, and creativity. Our reviewer notes that the pieces display “literary sophistication and the gripping storytelling of a skilled novelist”; perhaps the rewards of good essays and good fiction aren’t so different after all.
Arthur Smith is an Indie editor.
