The contemporary essay is in seriously snoozy shape. At last, someone (in this case, Cristina Nehring) has taken on those “best of” essay anthologies:

“In our own day the essay is an apologetic imitation of the short story. Like the short story, it tells a tale. Unlike the short story, it usually does not tell a very interesting tale–after all, this is nonfiction, so the bar for excitement is set lower. But speaking historically, the essay is not just a duller and tamer form of short fiction. It is in a different business altogether–and it should be.”