Reviews for The Essay: An Introduction

The average rating for The Essay: An Introduction based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-10-07 00:00:00 Grace Lowell A lot of great ideas for talking about creative non-fiction and a lot of good, classic examples of this genre. It does read a lot like the textbook it is, but the ideas are still there. I do wish it talked more about writing an essay instead of just writing about essays. There is so much interest in creative non-fiction now, it takes quite a bit to get the ideas for writing an essay out of this book.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-01-06 00:00:00 Hayley Greig This collection really does not deserve more than 2.5 stars in terms of how it achieves it's stated purpose. It is a strange anthology that markets/presents as a "hard-hitting collection about the search for meaning in the second half of life" by some inferred retro/introspection that just isn't contained in these works. Many of the pieces are non-contextualized excerpts from larger projects that seem like teasers or open-ended chapters. On several occasions I was just beginning to feel a movement toward or examination of some epiphany that was left just outside of my reach. The collection is introducted by Gail Sheehy, and edited by Jeremy Janes who passed away in 2006--perhaps he did not complete all he intended to do with this work. That said there are some excellent writers represented in the collection and several of the stories and poems resonated with me. I realy enjoyed Billy Collins' "Rooms," and Anne Tyler's piece as well as Alma Luz Villaneuva. I had high hopes for the influence the title might have on my writing as I approach 50, but I'm mostly left with a small list of authors/stories I'll need to read to understand the works in this collection.