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

Includes biographical notes (p. [309]-315)

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 2002.