Quick Take
- Narration: Ewan Chung delivers a composed, measured performance that suits the anthology format well, though the sheer range of voices and tones across twenty essays inevitably means some pieces land better than others.
- Themes: Identity and belonging, the personal essay as political act, creative nonfiction at the boundaries of genre
- Mood: Wide-ranging and intellectually restless, with flashes of urgency
- Verdict: An outstanding annual benchmark for the essay form, this edition earns its reputation through genuine breadth, though listeners new to the series should know it rewards patience more than speed.
I came to this one during a stretch of gray February afternoons when I needed prose that would actually push back at me. I’d been listening to a lot of straightforward narrative nonfiction, books that move in clean lines from start to finish, and the Best American Essays series has always been my antidote to that. The 2022 volume, guest-edited by Alexander Chee, arrived with a particular charge behind it. Chee is himself an essayist of considerable range, and the Washington Post once called his work marked by “virtuosity and power.” That description carries weight when you’re trying to understand what criteria shaped these twenty selections.
What struck me first, pulling up the opening chapter on a Tuesday morning with coffee going cold on the counter, was that the collection doesn’t ease you in gently. It deposits you in the middle of experiences and ways of thinking that may be entirely foreign to you. That is, of course, the point. The review from listener EB notes that Jesus Quintero’s “Anatomy of a Botched Assimilation” opens the collection, and it’s a fitting signal of intent. This is not a volume organized around comfort or reassurance.
What Chee Built With Twenty Slots
Guest editors of this series face a genuinely impossible task: they read thousands of essays published across magazines, journals, and literary reviews, and they narrow the field to twenty. The methodology is inherently personal, and you feel Chee’s fingerprints throughout. The 2022 edition skews toward writers working at the intersection of the personal and the political, toward essays that refuse to treat their subject as merely academic. One longtime reader of the series, reviewer Ironfriar, who has followed the collection since its inception in 1986, noted that this year’s variety felt broader than any edition in recent memory. That rings true. There are pieces here that operate like lyric poems, and others that read like compressed journalism, and still others that feel closer to speculative inquiry. Ewan Chung’s narration, clean and unaffected, threads through all of them without imposing a single register on the material.
The supplemental PDF that accompanies this audiobook is worth noting. In an anthology like this, where source publications and author backgrounds matter to context, having that reference available enriches the experience. You can listen through and then return to the PDF for the editorial apparatus that situates each piece. It’s one of the more thoughtful uses of the companion document format I’ve encountered.
When the Range Becomes the Challenge
The strength of a collection this diverse is also, occasionally, its difficulty. Reviewer Ironfriar was candid that there were ups and downs in enjoyment, and that honesty feels right. An anthology built around range will almost always contain pieces that don’t resonate with every listener. The essays that dwell in highly specific personal contexts require a kind of active generosity from the reader, a willingness to meet the writer on unfamiliar ground. In audio, that demand is heightened because you can’t skim or skip without disrupting the narrator’s rhythm.
Ewan Chung handles the material without fuss. He doesn’t editorialize with his voice, which is probably the right call for a collection where the guest editor’s vision is the interpretive frame. What you get is clear, steady delivery that lets the prose do its work. Some essays benefit from this more than others. The argumentative, architecturally tight pieces come through beautifully. The more lyric, rhythm-dependent essays occasionally feel like they want a more expressive hand, but Chung never actively undermines the material.
The Essay as an Annual Reckoning
There is something particular about listening to a Best American volume as an audiobook rather than reading it. The physical anthology invites dipping in and out, but audio enforces sequence. You hear the collection as Chee arranged it, in the order he chose, and that editorial structure becomes audible in ways it might not be on the page. The progression across twelve hours and fifty-four minutes has its own rhythm: escalation, relief, complication, something that feels like an argument even when no single through-line is stated.
Reviewer Mr. E put it simply: “so good to read so many different perspectives in so many things unknown to me.” That is the best possible summary of what this series offers year on year. The 2022 edition, under Chee’s curation, extends that tradition with particular energy.
Who Should Listen, Who Should Wait
This audiobook is for listeners who already understand what a literary essay is and what it asks of them. If you’ve read writers like Zadie Smith, Hilton Als, or indeed Alexander Chee himself, you will be in familiar territory even when the subject matter is new. It’s also an excellent annual benchmark for anyone who writes nonfiction: hearing what gets selected for this series tells you something about where the form is living right now.
If you’re new to the essay as a form and hoping for something that builds toward a single argument or resolution, this is probably not the right entry point. Try a collection organized around a single author first. But if you’re ready for twenty distinct voices asking twenty distinct questions, this is exactly the kind of listening that stays with you long after the final piece ends.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to have read previous Best American Essays volumes to follow this one?
No. Each annual edition is entirely standalone. The 2022 volume was guest-edited by Alexander Chee and reflects his particular curatorial vision, which differs from prior years. You can come in with no prior familiarity with the series.
What is the supplemental PDF that comes with this audiobook?
The PDF provides the editorial apparatus for the collection, including source publication information and contextual notes on the essays. It’s a useful companion, especially for listeners who want to track down the original publications or learn more about the featured writers.
How does Ewan Chung’s narration handle such a tonally varied collection?
Chung uses a clean, steady delivery that prioritizes clarity over expression. This works well for the argumentative and journalistic essays in the collection. Listeners who prefer a more performative approach to narration may occasionally wish for more tonal variety on the lyric pieces, but Chung never gets in the way of the material.
Is this the most diverse Best American Essays edition in recent years?
One longtime reader who has followed the series since 1986 described the 2022 edition as broader in variety than any edition in recent memory, noting Chee’s selection spans topics and forms that feel more expansive than prior years. The collection leans toward essays working at the intersection of personal experience and broader social questions.
