The best American essays 2004 / edited and with an introduction by Louis Menand ; Robert Atwan, series editor

Includes index.

Foreword / Robert Atwan -- Introduction / Louis Menand -- America, look at your shame / James Agee -- Envy / Kathryn Chetkovich -- The last Americans / Jared Diamond -- The Arctic hedonist / Anne Fadiman -- Caught / Jonathan Franzen -- The unreal thing / Adam Gopnik -- A sudden illness / Laura Hillenbrand -- Passover in Baghdad / Tim Judah -- My 80's / Wayne Koestenbaum -- My Yiddish / Leonard Michaels -- Bix and Flannery / Ben Miller -- Against cool / Rick Moody -- Yarn / Kyoko Mori -- Lifelike / Susan Orlean -- Rock 101 / Alex Ross -- The mind's eye / Oliver Sacks -- My lost city / Luc Sante -- Arrow and wound / Mark Slouka -- My father is a book / Janna Malamud Smith -- Bullet in my neck / Gerald Stern -- Amor perdido / Tennnessee Williams -- An enlarged heart / Cynthia Zarin -- Biographical notes -- Notable essays of 2003.

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. Here you will find a "splendid array of unpredictable and delectable essays" (Booklist), chosen by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Louis Menand, another collection with "delights on every page" (Dallas Morning News). The Best American Essays once again earns its place as the liveliest and leading annual of its kind. Book jacket.