Maps To Anywhere

The essays in Maps To Anywhere plot terrain that is familiar and strange in prospective. He begins by writing on subjects ranging from his family to the origin of the barbershop pole. Bernard Cooper also goes into the glimmering surface of the southern California landscape. While doing so, he observes the collision of the American Dream with the realities of everyday life. From the fragments, he discovers landmarks by which he attempts to make sense of contemporary America.

The book was exciting to read for the precision of language. I particularly enjoyed the sections where the author tied together his thoughts about art and architecture through his impressions of childhood. His book was also enjoyed because it's a great collection for demonstrating how the power of an essay is not dictated by length. Really the power of an essay can be fulfilled through many literary techniques. Techniques such as language, style, and description. I particularly like the part of the story that says "Once, Life magazine featured " The Great Cathedrals of Europe," and what I saw, or tasted rather, after turning the pages and licking my index finger, was the bitterness of ink, a flavor that matched the photographs of expressionless death masks, prostrate statues, apothecary jars in which slept silvers of the saints."

That particular line struck me as I read because usually people experience things like that but wouldn't speak of it in an essay. This is one of the many differentiations that Copper points out within creative essay writing. Creative essay writing seems a lot more interesting than the essay writings that I have been introduced to before. I now look forward to writing my own essays and hopefully it is as creative as Cooper's.