This is the first collection of the essays of a young (38) essayist who writes in mainstream magazines (Harper’s, Outside, NYT Book Review) as well as in McSweeney.  Feferenced in NYTBR’s “paperback” blurbs, it comprises widely diverse topics written about in very unusual prose, excellent phrase turning and modern sensibility. From a voice-over actress who does video games to Jim Henson, from Hemingway to the mundaneness of the success of great writers (Whitman, Melville and Dickinson), from a Jeff Daniels movie in Escanaba to writing on writing on writing, from Werner Herzog to Rynard Kapuscinski—Bissell grabs you by the cerebral lapels and makes you interested. Not everything succeeds—see the long diatribe in Robert D. Kaplan (a neocon) and the Underground Literary Alliance. Top notch.