Lee Gutkind is the founder and editor of the literary journal Creative Nonfiction. Writer-in-residence at Arizona State University, Gutkind is also the editor of In Fact and the author of Almost Human.
Drawn primarily from lesser-known publications and blogs, the 28 pieces in this collection together reflect an attempt to introduce writers outside the mainstream, new voices on the literary scene. In his introduction, Gutkind, founder and editor of the literary journal Creative Nonfiction, writes that the pieces "demonstrate the versatility and strength of this genre we call creative nonfiction." Highlights include Laura Sewell Matter's "Pursuing the Great Bad Novelist," in which she tracks down the author of some pages found on the beach in Iceland, and Pagan Kennedy's portrait of Alex Comfort, "The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex." On the other hand, there is Donovan Hohn's "Moby-Duck," about plastic toys gone astray in the ocean, which starts interestingly enough but goes on interminably, and Stefan Fatsis's "My Glove," about the writer's baseball mitt, which did not hold this reviewer's attention, even as a baseball fan. There is certainly a lot of variety here, but the selections included don't reflect this reviewer's idea of "the best." A better selection of creative nonfiction can be found in The Best American Magazine Writing 2007.--Gina Kaiser, Univ. of the Sciences Lib., Philadelphia Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
This anthology, an offshoot of the journal Creative Nonfiction, kicks off an annual series drawing together the best representatives of a fertile (if ill-defined) genre still struggling for recognition. In his introduction, Gutkind tries to clarify the subject, a seeming "contradiction in terms," but the pieces speak for themselves, blending precise research and astute observation with flavorful, fascinating narratives. Carol Smith, a reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, contributes an account of "The Cipher in Room 214," a 1996 female suicide found in a downtown Seattle hotel who left behind no clues as to her identity; Eula Biss details powerfully her experience with chronic illness by riffing off the 0-10 scale on which her doctors ask her to rank her pain. Most pieces are first-person, memoir-style accountsAwriters include a former stripper, a fatally ill man, a narcoleptic and a prosopagnosic (a woman who can't recognize faces)Abut a smattering of profiles include an insightful Poets & Writers piece by Daniel Nester on notoriously over-creative nonfiction writer James Frey. Happily, Gutkind reaches several steps beyond the literary journal sceneAblog excerpts turn up, and a piece on the secret language of hackers (or "h4ck3rs") comes from John McPhee's Princeton University creative nonfiction classAto find a wide range of topics and styles; though some selections are stronger than others, the richness of the "real" makes the anthology work as a cohesive whole. (July) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
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