Though their subjects vary widely, all these writers, says Glass, have something in common, qualities he feels This American Life also shares. Glass styles himself as a radio journalist who tells stories by “filtering his interviews and impressions through a distinctive literary imagination, an eccentric intelligence, and a sympathetic heart.” He believes that those practicing literary nonfiction well are those who think about the bigger implications of the facts they gather. “When I’m researching a story and the real-life situation starts to turn into allegory, I feel incredibly lucky and do everything in my power to expand that part of the story,” Glass says in his introduction to the compendium. “Everything suddenly stands for something so much bigger.”

That’s the prism through which Glass evaluated the writers in this book. They are all, he says, writers who share their feelings and thoughts within the text rather than mindlessly excising themselves from the story as some journalistic conventions would have them do.

By the way, Glass dislikes the term literary nonfiction. He thinks it is pretentious. He says he’s unsure what to call the true stories in his collection, but he is certain that they serve as a beacon in what he sees as a golden age of lousy journalism. He is certainly right about that. — Steve Weinberg