These surprisingly un-academic essays are all truely distinctive and full of entertainment. From the living Monopoly game (in an essay by John McPhee) to a set of unattended ghostly footnotes, from the Joan Didion elegy to the Anne Carson fantasia, this book shows what the essay is and with any luck, it will be. The collection is full of pleasures and surprises, the most stunning of which is the ongoing essay by D'Agata himself - he transforms a mere anthology into the living biography of an art form.' - Michael Silverblatt, Bookworm.'