My path as a writer became much more smooth when I learned, when things aren’t going well, to regard my struggles as curious, not tragic. So, How do we get through this puzzle? That’s funny, I thought I could write this book and I can’t, instead of, I have to drink a bottle of gin before eleven to numb myself at how horrifying this is. You could al

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An essay is a personal reflection that links individual experience to socially relevant ideas. You might begin with the particulars of your own life, or, the broader patterns of culture, but eventually you have to bridge the two. An essayist fuses many genres—the pen of a poet, the imagination of novelist, the persuasion of a marketer, the research... See more