E. B. White once wrote "There are as many kinds of essays as there are human attitudes or poses, as many essay flavors as there are Howard Johnson ice creams." Michelle Orange is a talented writer whose essays, journalism, criticism, and fiction have appeared in various publications including The New York Times, The Nation, The Village Voice, and The Virginia Quarterly. She is the editor of From the Notebook: The Unwritten Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald and a founding editor of The Rumpus, The Sicily Papers, an epistolary travelogue. This noteworthy collection of essays puts on display her receptive approach to pop culture and a host of more substantive matters.
In "The Uses of Nostalgia and Some Thoughts on Ethan Hawke's Face," Orange reflects upon time and the mixed feelings she has every year watching the actors of her generation growing older. The pervasive influence of the media and pop culture is also evident in "Do I Know You? And Other Impossible Questions," where the author ponders the ways ordinary people are mistaken for famous people. Many years ago, a couple came up for an autograph from me thinking I was Jack Nicholson; I'm sure it was the dark sunglasses. Years later in the same place, another twosome identified me as a singer/songwriter Elvis Costello, again probably because of my glasses.
Orange shifts gears and dives into some very deep subjects including the loss of privacy on the Internet ("Pixellation Nation"), the growing medicalization of mental illness ("War and Well-Being, 21° 19'N, 157° 52'W"), and a dangerous trip to Lebanon in 2008 ("Beirut Rising"). You get the point. Orange's essays come in many different flavors, revealing the surges of a fine mind in action.
