Reviews for Concise Anthology of American Literature

The average rating for Concise Anthology of American Literature based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-01-20 00:00:00 Dean Donaldson Another semester, another (mostly) read anthology of well-regarded literature. I would like to give one star for this book's unbelievable heaviness -- nearly killed my back! -- but I've decided to judge it on content and organization instead. Anyway, I've already owned, or once owned and resold to university bookstores, various collections of American literature, so I feel somewhat authoritative when I declare this particular one rather middle-of-the-road. It surely has some interesting non-canonical and very recent stuff, like President Obama's inauguration speech and Sherman Alexie's "Class", a short story about an Indian man who likes to pick up the "tenth best looking white woman" at whatever event he attends. But I am annoyed at the editor's overall preference for bite-sized fictional pieces -- Kate Chopin, for example, is represented with the unremarkable story "The Storm" rather than The Awakening -- and mere excerpts from longer, often better and more important works. I'd prefer slightly less variety, if that's the tradeoff, and certainly more completion. As it is, this book serves as little more than a sampler. "You like this chapter from Frederick Douglass's Narrative? Cool! Now you can go buy and read the whole book!" Also, who needs 436795 Emily Dickinson poems? A nice handful would more than suffice -- my students and I thank you very much.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-11-21 00:00:00 Steven Bennett George L. McMichael's Concise Anthology of American Literature was a nice mixture of authors with a focus of giving a taste of literature from different time periods of American's writing history. I enjoyed a lot of the history, as well as the added historical information. Reading this book was to fulfill a course requirement, and I highly doubt there would be many people looking to read this book purely out of enjoyment. However, I did find it interesting and can say I honestly learned a good deal about American Literature. I could see myself keeping this text awhile as a reference while I continue on with my educational journey.